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THE IRISH REPUBLIC 




The Author 

chicago tribune correspondent in ireland, england and 
france. he remained continuously in ireland from the 
passage of the conscription act until after the arrest 
and deportation of the republican leaders 



THE IRISH REPUBLIC 



AN ANALYTICAL HISTORY OF IRELAND, 1914-1918, 
WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE EASTER 
INSURRECTION (1916) AND THE GERMAN 
•PLOTS." ALSO A SKETCH OF DE VALERA'S 
LIFE BY HARRY J. BOLAND, HIS PRIVATE SEC- 
RETARY; A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF COUNTESS 
MARKIEVICZ, AND A DEFENSE OF ULSTER BY 
ULSTERMEN. 



BY 
CHARLES NEWTON WHEELER 




CHICAGO 

Cahill-Igoe Company 
1919 



iip'L 



W5 



Copyright, I'M'' 

By 

Cliarles Newton Wheeler 

Printed in. 

Imited States of America 

Published AuRUst, I'Jl'J 



TRANSFERRED FROU 
OOPYRIGHT OFFICE 

DEC laa 



AUG 20 1919 



IN MEMORY OF MY WIFE 

Mary Lowry Wheeler 

WHO DESCENDED FROM THE GRAYS AND 
DOYLES OF GRANARD AND WHO POS- 
SESSED IN AN UNCOMMON DE- 
GREE THE SOUL OF A 
GREAT PEOPLE 



PLOTS 

Nothing is so offensive to a man who 
knows anything of history or of human 
nature, as to hear those who exercise the 
powers of government accuse any sect of 
foreign attachments. 

If there be any proposition universally 
true in politics it is this, that foreign 
attachments are the fruit of domestic 
misrule. It has always been the trick of 
bigots to make their subjects miserable at 
home, and then to complain that they look 
for relief abroad; to divide society, and 
to wonder that it is not united ; to govern 
as if a section of the state were the whole, 
and to censure the other sections of the 
state for their want of patriotic spirit. — 
[From Macaulay's essay on "The Civil 
Disabilities of the Jezvs:"] 



\r{ 



IRELAND'S DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE 

[Issued by the Dail Eireann at the Mansion House 
in Dublin, Jan. 21, iQig.] 

Whereas the Irish People is by right a free people; and 
whereas for seven hundred years the Irish people has never 
ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms 
against foreign usurpation; 

And whereas English rule in this country is, and always 
has been, based upon force and fraud and maintained by mili- 
tary occupation against the declared will of the people; 

And whereas the Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin 
on Easter Monday, 1916, by the Irish Republican Army, 
acting on behalf of the Irish people; 

And whereas the Irish people is resolved to secure and 
maintain its complete Independence in order to promote the 
common weal, to re-establish justice, to provide for future 
defense, to insure peace at home and good will with all 
nations, and to constitute a National policy based upon the 
people's will, with equal right and equal opportunity for every 
citizen; 

And whereas at the threshold of a new era in history, the 
Irish electorate has in the General Election of December, 
1918, seized the first occasion to declare by an overwhelming 
majority its firm allegiance to the Irish Republic; 

Now, therefore, we, the elected Representatives of the 
ancient Irish people, in National Parliament assembled, do, 
in the name of the Irish Nation, ratify the establishment of 
the Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to 
make this Declaration effective by every means at our com- 
mand; 

Do ordain the elected Representatives of the Irish people 
alone have power to make laws binding on the people of 
Ireland, and that the Irish Parliament is the only Parliament 
to which that people will give its allegiance. 

We solemnly declare foreign Government in Ireland to be 
an invasion of our National Right, which we will never toler- 
ate, and we demand the evacuation of our country by the 
English garrison; 

We claim for our National Independence the recognition 
and support of every Free Nation of the world, and we pro- 
claim that Independence to be a condition precedent to inter- 
national peace hereafter; 

In the name of the Irish people we humbly commit our 
destiny to Alm:'ghty God, who gave our fathers the courage 
and determination to persevere through centuries of a ruth- 
less tyranny, and strong in the justice of the cause which 
they have handed down to us, we ask His divine blessing on 
this, the last stage of the struggle which we have pledged 
ourselves to carry through to Freedom. 



vn 



GRATTAN : 

The constitution may for a time be lost, but the character of 
the people cannot be lost. Liberty may repair her golden beams 
and with redoubled heat animate the country. The cry of loyalty 
will not long continue against the principles of liberty. Loyalty 
distinct from liberty is corruption. Without a union of hearts, 
identification is extinction, is dishonor, is conquest. Yet I do not 
give up my country. I see her in a swoon, but she is not dead. 
Though in her tomb she lies helpless and motionless, still there is 
on her lips a spirit of life and on her cheek a glow of beauty. 

Thou art not conquered ; Beauty's ensign yet 
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, 
And death's pale flag is not advanced there. 

While a plank of the vessel stands together, I will not leave 
her. Let the courtier present his flimsy sail and carry the light 
bark of his faith with every new breath of wind; I will remain 
anchored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faith- 
ful to her freedom, faithful to her fall. \I'roni speech in opposi- 
tion to the Act of Union, iSoo.] 

LECKY : 
In the case of Ireland, as truly as in the case of Poland, a na- 
tional constitution was destroyed by a foreign power contrary to 
the wishes of the people. In the one case, the deed was a crime 
of violence; in the other, it was a crime of treachery and cor- 
ruption. In both cases a legacy of enduring bitterness was the 
result. 

GLADSTONE: 
I know of no blacker or fouler transaction in the history of 
man than the making of the Union between England and Ire- 
land. 

DICEY: 

[Professor of Law in Oxford Uniz'ersity] 
The act of Union was an agreement which, could it have been 
referred to a court of law, must at once have been cancelled as a 
contract — hopelessly tainted with fraud and corruption. 

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON: 
Don't unite with us, sir, or we shall rob you. 

viii 



CONTENTS 
FOREWORD . . xiii to xxxii 

PAGE 

THIRTY DAYS 1 

II "murder afoot" 5 

III ALICE STOPFORD GREEN 11 

IV A SIMPLE SYLLOGISM 20 

V THE FIRST "GERMAN PLOX" ...... 21 

VI PURSUING THE ULSTER ANTHOLOGY .... 26 

VII MORE OF THE "dRAGON's TEETH" .... 40 

VIII FISH AND FOWL 45 

IX THE RELIGIOUS ISSUE 47 

X bachelor's walk 53 

XI the UNCONQUERABLE THING 59 

XII TRYING TO BE ENGLAND'S FRIEND .... 60 

XIII LEADERS OF THE INSURRECTION 67 

XIV THE EXECUTIONS 69 

XV AN EYE FOR AN EYE 73 

XVI PARTITION 74 

XVII THE "moving why" THEY DID IT 77 

XVIII THE UNITED STATES COMES IN 80 

XIX THE QUID OBSCURUM OF STATESMEN ... 97 

XX THE RECOIL AGAINST CONSCRIPTION ... 98 

XXI MOBILIZING FOR RESISTANCE 104 

XXII SOME BALLADS OF THE CONSCRIPTION FIGHT . 113 

XXIII SIR HORACE PLUNKETT 124 

XXIV "no popery" 133 

XXV ENGLISH LABOR TAKES A STAND 145 

XXVI NEWS FROM AMERICA 148 

XXVII STILL ANOTHER "GERMAN PLOT" .... 152. 

XXVIII THE government's CHARGE 158 

XXIX ARRESTING THE REPUBLICAN LEADERS . . . 164 

XXX FATHER o'fLANAGAN 178 

XXXI Russell's noble reply to kipling . . . 181 

XXXII THE GAEL IN THE DOCK 184 

XXXIII DECEMBER FOURTEENTH 185 

XXXIV .THE DAIL EIREANN 205 

ix 



XXXV Ireland's claim to independence .... 

XXXVI WHY IRELAND IS A WORLD PROBLEM 

APPENDICES 
A Ireland's economic resources and her part 

IN AMERICAN HISTORY AND THE WORLD WAR 
B SKETCH OF DE VALERA's LIFE BY HARRY J. 

BOLAND 

C DE VALERa's address in CHICAGO .... 

D COUNTESS DE MARKIEVICZ 

E THE CASE FOR ULSTER 



210 
218 



225 

233 
239 
243 
247 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

THE AUTHOR Frofitispiece 

LORD GEORGE JN HIS NATIVE CITY OF CRTCCTETH, WALES . . 8 

ALICE STOPFORD GREEN 12 

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR 14 

ANDREW BONAR LAW 16 

LORD ROBERT CECII 18 

SIR EDWARD CARSON ADDRESSING COVENANTERS AT BALLY- 
CLARE 22 

A LONDON artist's CONCEPTION OF CARSON 24 

THE "evil genius" SIGNING THE COVENANT TO LEAD ULSTER 
IN CIVIL WAR AND IN REBELLION AGAINST THE BRITISH 

GOVERNMENT 32 

OLD HALLS OF IRISH PARLIAMENT AND TRINITY COLLEGE . 38 

THE LATE JOHN REDMOND 48 

EASTER WEEK RUINS MID ABBEY STREET 54 

RUINS AT EDEN QUAY-o'cON NELL MONUMENT .... 58 

RUINS IN NORTH EARL STREET 62 

SHELL OF GENERAL POST OFFICE 66 

LEADERS OF THE RISING PEARSE AND CONNOLLY ... 68 

CLARK, Mac DONAGH AND MC BRIDE 72 

T)ESTRUCT10N IN MID ABBEY STREET 76 

SHOT-TORN LIBERTY HALL 80 

HAVOC NEAR THE O'CONNNELL BRIDGE 84 

THE DAMAGE IN HENRY STREET 88 

HENRY STREET, LOOKING AT NELSON PILLAR .... 92 

SHELLS ALSO DROPPED IN ABBEY STREET 96 

DE VALERA LEAVING MANSION HOUSE 98 

JOHN DILLON AND JOSEPH DEVLIN 100 

THE LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN 104 

LORD FRENCH 108 

DE VALERA "sNAPPEd" IN O'CONNELL STREET .... 112 

GRIFFITH AND DE VALERA "sNAPPED" IN DAWSON STREET . 116 

ANTI-CONSCRIPTION MEETING IN CORK 120 

SIR HORACE PLUNKETT 126 

xi 



Xll 

THE PRINCE OF WALES 132 

JOHN MCGARKY 136 

HUGH o'nEILL 140 

PETER J. PEE! 148 

MAUD GONE MaCBRIDE 152 

DE VALERA AT BALLAGH ADERKEEN 156 

COUNTESS DE MARKIEVICZ 160 

COUNT PLUNKETT 164 

ARTHUR GRIFFITH 168 

EDWARD F. DUNNE 182 

FRANK P. WALSH 188 

SITTING OF THE DAIL EIREANN 204 

DE VALERA AND BOLAND CHEERED AT FOOTBALL GAME . . 208 

IRISH AMERICAN DELEGATES IN DUBLIN 212 

JOHN DILLON EXPELLED FROM HOUSE OF COMMONS . . 220 



FOREWORD 

I am neither Roman Catholic nor Irishman. I am a member 
of the Presbyterian church by baptism. My forbears have been 
of the Baptist persuasion since the inception of that creed — min- 
isters and builders of meeting houses. 

I am of English blood. At times it pulls, strongly. I love 
the English landscape. I cannot forget the lane that "runs from 
Steyning to the Ring;" nor that other lane that lies so pleasantly 
across the fields to Shottery, hard by the thatched cottage in the 
fragrant Hathaway gardens. I can hear the rooks at Stratford 
in early spring, and see the limpid, gentle Avon that winds so 
peaceful-like by the churchyard. I can hear the skylarks above 
the fields of Dorking, out Surrey way, and across the Downs, by 
Leith Hill and Leatherhead, by Box Hill and Reigate and Ran- 
more Common. I can hear the bleat of sheep on Epsom, and the 
crowing of the pheasant cocks from the woods. There are plover 
in the meadows and poppies midst the corn, and up the Thames 
by Windsor, removed from London's greed and sweat, there 
are signets on the water, to be branded by the king. In the 
stately limes and larches is a choir of birds, and there is peace 
and pleasant shade neath the yew and the beech tree. There are 
primroses at every brookside, and marguerites beside the whin. 
Everywhere there are flowers. There is a smell in the air of 
ineffable sweetness. On every road of the island some noble or 
wicked deed was done — some that had better be forgot. 

I love the heavy monuments and the cathedral churches — as 
architecture — and the things they hold. There are exceptions. 
Andre's bust in Westminster does not thrill me. I have kept 
"green" your memory, "Mother" England, but abhorred the greed 
and the ruthlessness of the Angle and the Saxon — the prodigality 
with which the ruling class has sent the youth of the land to 
battlefield and jungle for the sake of commerce, for the sake of 
pounds, shillings and pence. 

I have been drawn to you at times, "Mother" England, for I 
am of your blood. But there is something in me you ken not of. 
I cannot forget it. I would not if I could. It is 1776! And right 
here, I and the men from Erin strike hands and understand. I 
think you ought to know this, for "I" am millions in this land of 
vast distances and home of independent men. 

In those bleak, mid-winter mornings, a child, I scrambled 
through the snowdrifts to a little old school house, on the coun- 



xiv Foreword 

tryside. We did not begin our A. K. C.'s with the singing of 
"God Save the King." Our morning exercises consisted of the 
narrative of the Boston Tea Party, the Psalm of Freedom at 
Bunker Hill and the Anthem of Yorktown. We were children. 
It sank deep, so deep we would not say it ever could depart from 
our hearts. It was there in the little roadside shack, on desks 
we had rudely carved our names, that we carved the name of 
Nathan Hale. And as the lonely winter months stretched their 
weary lengths, we heard how you set *fire to Washington ; how 
you plied Tecumseh with rum and then put pounds, shillings and 
pence in his wallet for the scalps of our ancestors. You ever were 
a thrifty one at bargaining! We learned to hate the name of king, 
as the child hates something out in the field that would hurt it, 
like the hate we had for a snake. These are strong words, but 
true. W^e were told that your kings were brutal, ferocious and 
immoral, always greedy and always oppressing, lashing and killing 
the poor whom they despised. On that we were fed. In our plain 
but clean homes on the fringe of the forest, where things by 
necessity were rude, there were old-fashioned oval pictures on the 
plain walls — pictures of Washington and Lafayette. Do you 
know one great sentiment that took this nation into the world 
war? Remember Pershing at the shrine in France. He said: 
"Lafayette, we are here !" 

While we did not, we children, use strong language then, the 
thing which was put deep into our untutored minds, when we 
mentioned the name of your king, was the essence of that 
philosophy of abomination we used in later years in consigning 
things w^e abhorred to the nether clime. 

The great war is over. We all have been brayed in the mor- 
tar. Seven million dead ! Two hundred billion debt ! Women 
and children by the millions dead of inanition and horror ! We — 
you and Uncle Sam — stood side by side at Armageddon. You 
would go farther. You would offer your hand. You desire the 
English-speaking peoples of the earth to come together, underi 

*The English government immortalized Ross for his burning of Washington. It 
was held to be a brilliant exploit, to be gloriously commended. English school chil- 
dren today are so taught. The Encyclopaedia Britannica records the deed as follows ; 
"Ross was sent in connnand of a brigade to harry the coast of North America, and 
with 4,500 men and three light guns landed in Maryland. At Bladensburg the Ameri- 
cans stood to fight in a strong position, but Ross' men routed them (Aug. 24, 18H)' 
The same evening Washington was entered, and, the public buildings having been 
destroyed, the expedition re-embarked. This short and brilliant campaign excited:;th$ 
admiration of soldiers, critics and public alike, but the commander did not live to 
receive his reward. A few days later an expedition against Baltimore was undertaken ; 
skirmishing soon began, and one of the first to fall was Ross. A public monument 
was erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral, and others at his residence at 
Roostrevor and at Halifax, N. S. His family was granted the name of Ross of 
Bladensburg by royal letters-patent." 



Foreword xv 

standing and understood ; not forgetting but overlooking ; not 
cringing-like but Christian-like. Do you mean it? Have you 
nothing u]i your sleeve? 

Free Ireland ! ■ ■ 

Why do I — and "I" am innumerable multitudes of the United 
States who do not bear a crucifix or genuflect to Rome — as if by 
instinct feel such strong currents of sympathy for Ireland? Be- 
cause Ireland's story is my country's story, flashing vividly across 
memory's screen, what your learned psychologists term the as- 
sociation of brain concepts. Ireland's plea visualizes again the 
little school house and the old master — a one-armed man. He 
had left the other arm on the battlefield, and a battlefield you 
would have turned against him and his and me and mine had you 
followed your secret desire. The old New England si>irit still 
lives — the spirit that despised tyrants and spit at kings. 

"Mother" England, this is not the way of those who seek 
eternal bliss, this holding up against you through the generations 
the hate you so thoroughly deserved in 17/6, you and your stub- 
born old king. His name was George ! 

You would be a friend. You say as much. And how do you 
go about it to prove it, to disillusion us, to convince us that you 
and your king have mended your ways ? You said, when the 
world was on fire, you would agree with the American Presi- 
dent to self-determination for the whole world. You said it 
when you were knocking at the door of the monastery and a monk 
would be. How have you kei)t that death-bed repentance, now 
that you have been snatched from the brink of the grave? 

You have returned from the Conference of Peace with 
more spoils than ever your broad back was laden in your 
history of empire building. You cut and carved the world's 
map to your liking, and you made others like it. You 
have set the graven effigy of a Mikado on your mantel piece in 
token of your alliance ; you pampered the one nation in the world 
that might cause this nation of ours a great sorrow. You now are 
the most powerful empire in the world's history, but in your very 
strength is your weakness. Beware lest you are laying up treasure 
which will turn to corruption in your hands by the rust of hate. 
Great power is careless of its use. It is the natural law. The 
other nations of the earth will resent your bigness. They will, not 
alone through prejudice but through necessity and the yearning 
for autonomy, nurse the day when they can topple the giant from 
its pedestal, even as they toppled a Caesar, and a Wilhelm, and a 
Nicholas — unless you reform. For it seems not right that one 
small nation, a hundred families, say, should rule so much of the 



xvi Foreword 

earth and so many million as you do — the rule of one nation by 
another nation. They will execrate what to them is your selfish- 
ness. 

And of all the people of the earth, which family will hate you 
most, will arise wherever the habitation of a human may be found, 
to curse you, to pray God unceasingly for your undoing, for retri- 
bution? Whose words will be the hardest spoken by the human 
tongue? Ireland's! Not alone in these United States, where 
twenty million such dwell, besides the 1776 descendants, but in 
your possessions everywhere, they will treat you as a viper. They 
will multiply while your ruling class remains sterile. Their racial 
propagation alone w^ill smother you in time, for it is the religion 
of their women not to kill what God has made in His image. 

Do you know how many O'Neill's there are in the world ? And 
every O'Neill knows that in the days of Elizabeth — "Good Queen 
Bess," the "Virgin" Queen — they made a map and on it they 
marked the spot, and, as they chortled, in jest, they said: "Here 
Shane O'Neill was slain." O'Neill is but one name. Do you re- 
member how you exiled and cast out of Erin the flower of a 
race in your greed for land, and in your terrible bigotry ? Do you 
remember how you endeavored to blot from the pages of history 
their cherished tradition — how you forbade their religion ; how 
you broke the Staff of Patrick and the Cross of Columcille and 
profaned their national relics; how you burned their schools and 
gave their sacred books to the bonfire, while you hunted down 
their learned men ? 

Do you remember how you abolished Irish industry and broke 
in pieces the inauguration chairs of their chiefs; how you tore up 
the law of a race, and trampled the codes of inheritance, of land 
tenure, or every sacred obligation between neighbors? Do you 
remember how you mutilated the very image of justice, how you 
made the love of a country and every attachment of race a crime, 
and reared a gallows for those who would use their mother 
tongue and clothe themselves in the raiments of their ancestors? 
Do you not now understand that to the four corners of the earth 
you banished these people, and that in the four corners of the 
earth they and their sons and their sons' sons and their women 
have taught the people of the earth to look upon you as an un- 
holy thing? Grattan, the Protestant, prophesied in the dark days 
of long ago that you would come to an evil end — that what you 
trampled on in Europe would rise to sting you in America. 

It is up to you. If you fail now we shall continue to have the 
Irish question in every nation on this footstool, growing in volume 
as the years go by. It will confuse our politics; it will confuse 



Foreword xvii 

your politics. The world will not know peace, however much 
you cry peace. Because you had your way at Paris every peo- 
ple whose aspirations were denied will blame you, openly and 
fftsidiously. 

Hate is the inexorable heritage of war. It has been more than 
fialf a century since our Civil war, and that was merely an in- 
Jhernecine strife on a comparatively small scale. The hatreds be- 
queathed by that war have not yet been wiped out. Hate has fed 
j^e soul of every nation, great or small, that lost a war. That 
hate was visited upon the victor. Now the whole world has 
I'iieen at war, and the hate of all that section of the world that lost 
or was humiliated at Paris will be your heritage. 

Ireland is your salvation, if you will but understand it. You 
must have done them a great wrong or they would not have re- 
sented through the centuries without ceasing your presence among 
Jfiem. They don't like you now. They never did. You are of 
another race. You are Saxon and Angle. They are Gael and 
^elt. You hold their ancient lands by brigandage and not by theii 
approval. They want you to get out. Why don't you do it ? 

Do you know, "Mother" England, what many Americans are 
saying, Americans who would be your friends if you would let 
them ? Listen : They are saying that you are the same old Jacob, 
though your hand is covered with hair; that you are filled with 
greed, even more than before the world war ; that you want the 
ifc venue from Ireland — that you have not changed at heart since 
■ you tried the Stamp Act on our American colonies — that you 
merely have put on a new makeup. They are whispering, one tc 
another, that you are as bigoted as ever, and all swollen up with 
cant ; that you are the same old Pharisee, because you will not 
'{coerce Ulster." They are repeating by word of mouth that you 
have thirty thousand propagandists in America today, that you are 
;;.4ming at a peaceful conquest of this land by a propaganda in- 
6nitely more clever than the Germans employed to engraft "kul- 
fiir" into the soul of all the peoples of the earth. They are saying 
that you want to take Bunker Hill out of our school books. 
iHany of our people, doubtless encouraged by the Gael amongsi 
us, feel that you have in your heart only contempt for us. They 
Delieve that Sir Edward Carson expressed truly what is in your 
%oul when he referred to the solemn act of our Senate as an 
act of "unparalleled efifrontery." You said the same to the 6ol- 
•^jnists of 1776 — "unparalleled efifrontery." Can't you understand 
even elemental psychology? Can't you get it through your head 
ttiat the use of the words "unparalleled efifrontery" is the very 
thing that will send millions of us back to Bunker Hill? This na- 



xviii Foreword 

tion, too, has a soul. 

Never in your history were such obligations and such responsi- ^ 
bilities laid upon you. In every city, town and hamlet in all the 
United States, this hour, are men and women humming the march- -^j 
ing songs of old Ireland. And other men and women, filled with 
your stubbornness and bigotry, are hating them, even as you seem""' 
to hate them. Do you realize, "Mother" England, what you are 
doing with your Irish problem? Do you realize that you are turn-^^ 
ing the world into a house of intolerance — that you are arraying,^^ 
Protestant against Catholic and Catholic against Protestant — that' 
you are rekindling the hottest fires of bigotry since the sphere was)'^ 
reduced from chaos by your "no-coercion" alibi? Was it for 
this that the millions of Catholic and Protestant boys f rom - 
the four quarters of the earth stood at Armageddon to save your 
hide and ours? 

Free Ireland ! Completely ! Take her into the family of na-^, 
tions. She will be your friend in a fortnight, as Cuba became ours. ^ 
She will produce in the greatest abundance what you must have*'*' 
in the greatest abundance — food. It seems that the great God 
put Ireland there to feed you. Her people know your people — " 
the common people — and they will love one another. She would 
not and will not harm you. She will be so thrilled with the'' 
dream of the centuries coming to pass that her hatred — and you 
know how much she has to hate you for — will turn to forbear- 
ance and her forbearance to sympathy and her sympathy to co-.'i 
operation. The real Ireland, as you know, is magnanimous and ,, 
cheerful when dealt with honorably. Even your obstinate old-^ 
Covenanters — from whom I come and whose kind burned the 
women at Salem — will find in their freed countrymen that gen--' 
erosity and that comraderie that have made them famous and ^ 
admired and loved in every nation under the heaven, save among"^'' 
your governing class. Here in America, "Mother" England, here^^ 
in Chicago, we get along like two peas in a pod — we Covenanters 
and Catholics — in business, in society, and in politics. We sliare'^ 
one another's human burdens. The\ are kind to our poor ; we are 
kind to theirs. 

Think what it would mean to you as well as to the world to . 
be rid of the Irish problem. It would take away much of your';' 
trouble at home, your trouble in Australia, much of it in Africa^^ 
in Canada, and in the United States of America. You would 
begin to enjoy then what you might command by afifection butV 
never shall by force — the respect of the world. The English 
speaking peoples would come together, and we, while not for-^'-^ 
getting our traditions, we Americans of English blood would not 



Foreword xix 

longer "nurse our wrath to keep it warm." You would not need 
so large a propaganda force as you now have among us. You 
would not have to marry your empty titles to our silly little 
heiresses to maintain a speaking acquaintance. The coming of 
your prince would not then stir resentment among us, although we 
understand he is a "regular fellow." ^^'e are a plain people, and 
frown on the trappings of royalty, on resounding titles and honors 
bestowed upon your favored few in the perpetuation of your sys- 
tem of caste, while you smugly tolerate London's East End. 

But we would try to understand you better. Being skeptical, 
even as they of old when they sought from the Master a sign, we 
ask that you prove by your deeds that we may know your heart 
is right, for your word does not excite us. 

Free Ireland, as a beginning of your reconstruction, for the 
sake of world peace. Let them have their way, once. Trust 
them, once. They have trusted you many times, and to their sor- 
row. If they fail we shall have no more to say. Open the League 
doors to them, and then we all could come back to Old England 
or to Ireland, Saxon and Angle and Gael and Celt. We could 
♦together go to Leopardstown, or Ballydoyle, or Punchestown or 
Limerick, or Phoenix Park, to see the jumpers go over the high 
hurdle. We could cast our flies in the Shannon or paddle on Kil- 
larney's lake. With good-natured jibe, the American, pointing 
across Belfast Bay, might ask: "About where out yonder did 
Paul Jones show you up?" And the companion from Ludgate 
Hill might reply : "Really, I don't recall Paul Jones ; I was think- 
ing of Ross of Bladensburg." And then the two might smile and 
exclaim, "How in this world could we have been such silly asses?" 

Cuba, lying on our doorstep, a hne base for enemy submarines, 
is a Catholic country. Cuba is the friend in its heart of the na- 
tion that never had a Catholic ruler. 

Think it over, "Mother" England, 

The Ahnv York Sun, July 2, 1919, printed the following edi- 
torial : 

"The return of Mr. Lloyd George to London appears to have 
been a triumph. In the street on the way from Downing 
Street to Westminster, and in the House, the cheers and applause 
for the Prime Minister are said to have been unprecedented. All 
this does not surprise the watchers on this side of the Atlantic. If 
there was anything that Lloyd George went to Paris for and failed 
to get, then we have missed it. He jileased the dreamers of Eng- 
land by advocating the scheme of the League of Nations ; and then 
delighted the practical politicians with the performance of obtain- 
ing in the covenant of the league one vote each for the Empire, 



XX Foreword | 

Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and India^six 
votes as compared with the one vote allotted to the United States. - 
In addition to getting for Great Britain everything that the most . 
sanguine British imagination could covet in the way of colonial"' 
power — including an even firmer grip on Egypt than England has 
ever had — and the utter destruction of German influence in the *' 
eastern hemisphere, Mr. Lloyd George obtained the signature of 
the President of the United States to a pledge which, if Mr. Wil-'''^ 
son's hand and stenographic seal made it binding, would obligate j 
the United States to use to an unlimited extent its wealth and 
soldiers to preserve the British Empire intact. Mr. Lloyd George 4 
brought to London two skulls. One is the dome, stolen by the 
Germans, of an African Sultan of unpronounceable name. Tht - 
other is the skull of Mr. Wilson's declaration that self-determina- 
tion must be permitted to all nations, great or small. This the"* 
Welshman took in the battle of Paris, and he may write across the , 
brow Mr. Wilson's later announcement that the Irish question 
is a domestic problem. It may stand on the mantelpiece in Down-< 
ing street, in front of a framed copy of the late Fourteen Points 
or Principles. Small wonder, we say, that those who once yelle<^- 
"Limehouse !" called "Hurrah!" when Lloyd George came back 
to London with his trophies. The fact that the assent of the-'i 
United States Senate is necessary to the completion of certain 
parts of his victory cannot detract from the Prime Minister's re- 
markable accomplishment. He did all he could do and he per-1 
haps expects that Mr. W^ilson w'ill be able to consummate the 
programme." i', 

There was one nation at the Peace Conference that might 
have battered down the doors of the chambers of the -• 
"Big Four" and invited Erin to come in and lay her claims be- 
fore the map-makers of our new world. That nation was the^^ 
United States of America. It flatly refused. Not only did it, , 
acquiesce in the British view on this question (as well as the 
British views apparently on all questions), but its representatives'-; 
seemed to have assumed an antagonistic attitude, for some un- 
known reason, toward Ireland's claim at the outset while smiling 
benignly on nearly all other ethnic strains in the universe. (China 
and India were notable exceptions with Ireland.) And this not-"^^ 
withstanding the fact that Ireland was the one "small nation" 
that had held a plebiscite since the signing of the armistice and^ 
had voted three to one for "self-determination." y. 

What travail shall come upon the new world because of this 
dozing of the Eagle beneath the mane of the Lion, if trava'};jr' 
does eventuate, will be laid, accordingly, at the doors of th/j 



Foreword xxi 

nation, not alone for its failure to stand by its announced prin- 
ciples — fourteen of them — with respect to Ireland, but with re- 
spect to China and India and the peoples of Africa. If another 
world war engulfs the human family shortly, then we, the gov- 
ernment of the United States, shall not be guiltless. 

There was not the slightest chance of Ireland being considered 
by the British delegates, if left to their own devices. Before that 
delegation left London it was pledged by the solemn asseverations 
of its members to oppose Irish claims. 

The "Big Four" of England at the peace table were Arthur 
James Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil, Mr. Bonar Law, and David 
Lloyd George. 

Mr. Balfour had been the consistent opponent of Republican- 
ism in Ireland, as in all other British possessions, during his public 
career. From the Tory standpoint, England has not had a more 
successful empire builder since Disraeli's day. He is perhaps the 
one colossal intellect of present-day English statesmen. (We 
only wish the United States had a Balfour.) He is thoroughly 
British, which is not to his discredit as a Nationalist. Profound 
as are his state utterances, even his address before the United 
States Senate, Mr. Balfour's subjective mind always has seemed 
to be riveted to the central idea that when all is said and done 
the only thing that matters for the British Empire is more empire 
— commercial expansion, colonial expansion, the domination by 
his gracious majesty the king of as much of the earth's surface 
and its chattels as power and superior diplomacy can achieve. 
He is one of two conspicuous examples, as we now recall, of the 
"single-track mind." His, however, tracks toward home. 

It is related that when Mr. Balfour visited the tomb of George 
Washington, after we had entered the world war, he was un- 
usually thrilled with the notion that thereafter, the war having 
been won with our aid, Great Britain and the United States 
could control the commerce of the world! That was the true 
British statesman who knows when to soar and when to be 
practical ! 

When the supreme show-down came, Mr. Balfour was not 
what might be vernacularly termed crazy for a world made safe 
for democracy. He was chiefly concerned, it seems, with a 
world brought under the domination of King George's Empire. 

Moreover, he has not the slightest sympathy with Ireland's 
Republican aspirations. \\'ith rare satire he summed up his atti- 
tude on this question long before the Peace Conference, when 
he referred to Ireland's claims as that "bitter fiction" that Ireland 
ei'er was a nation. He was committed, both by birth and training, 



xxii Foreword 

to defend the royalists of Ulster against all comers. 

Balfour has deserved well of his king! 

Mr. Lloyd George, whatever his liberalism before the war, 
whatever his bitter fulminations against the men he afterward ' 
took into his cabinet, was committed in 1918 — after the armistice 
was signed — in opposition to Ireland's claim for self-government. 
In his election manifesto of November, 1918, on which he went 
before the electorate of the United Kingdom, he unetjuivocally 
declared that, if returned to power, he and his government would . 
not consent to the "coercion of Ulster." That was tantamount 
to saying that the Crown had accepted Ulster's ultimatum (that 
section of Ulster that really means it when it sings "God Save 
the King;" Sir Edward Carson's Ulster), that Home Rule would ' 
not be granted to Ireland except by a partition scheme. 

It was the Ulster leaders of the Carson school, who first, in 
1913 and 1914, openly preached sedition and rebellion, even an al- , 
liance with Germany to defeat Home Rule, mutiny in the English 
army, and what is now popularly characterized as Bolshevism. Mr. ■ 
Law was one of those who gave the English soldiers to understand 
that mutiny on their part in support of the Ulster royalists, and " 
against Republican Ireland, would be a commendable undertaking, 
if the government sought to proceed with its Home Rule law. 

Bonar Law openly suggested mutiny at a time when 
German high officials were in Ulster, enjoying if not encour- 
aging the Ulster rebellion, which was made effective as a threat > 
to the Empire, for the moment, by the 30,000 German 
rifles with which the Ulster rebels were armed, the details of 
which — Germany's part in the Ulster rebellion — will be set forth 
in a later chapter, with particular api)lication to the subsequent 
Easter insurrection (1916), in the South and West. 

In a speech at Dublin, November 28, 1913, Mr. Bonar Law 
said: "I have said on behalf of the party — and only a week ago - 
it was repeated in language as plain as my own by Lord Lands- ^ 
downe and the party has endorsed it — we have said that if 
they first attempt to coerce Ulster before they have received the 
sanction of the electors, Ulster will do well to resist them, and we 
will support her in her resistance to the end. . . . There is 
another point to which I would specially refer. In order to 
carry out his despotic intention, King James had the largest , 
paid army which had ever been seen in England. What hap- 
pened? There was a revolution and the King disappeared. Why? 
Because his own army refused to fight for him?" 

In the House of Commons, March 23, 1914, Mr. Bonar Law " 
said : "The House knows that we on this side have, from the 



Foreword xxiii 

very first, held the view that to coerce Ulster is an operation 
which no government, under existing conditions, has a right to 
ask the army to undertake. And, in our view, of course, it is 
not necessary to say it, any [army] officer who refuses, is only 
fulfilling his duty. . . . The (juestion has been raised 
in an acute form, and in my Itelief nothing can save the army 
now, except a clear declaration on the part of the government, 
that officers will not be compelled — Hon. members : ('And men !') 
— and men will not be compelled — to engage in civil war against 
their will." 

Three days later the Morn'wg Post, organ of the Tory forces, 
said : "The Army has killed the Home Rule bill, and the sooner 
the government recognized the fact, the better for the country." 

That Ireland should have a friend in the man who was ready 
to smash the British Empire in the interests of a small minority in 
order to defeat the Home Rule demanded by the majority, was 
absurd. 

Lord Robert Cecil, in the House of Commons, April 1, 1914, 
said : "I utterly deny that the army is the instrument of the 
government. The army is the servant of the nation, and you 
have no right to use the army as the instrument of a mere party 
body like the government." Lord Robert was speaking on the 
Home Rule proposal. He was contending for the Ulster rebels 
and against Ireland's national aspirations. He was ready to lay 
down the rule that the government had no right to employ the 
army in putting down rebellion when that rebellion happened to 
be located in Ulster. 

Perhaps nothing more clearly illustrates the unyielding qual- 
ity of the Cecil mind than Lord Robert's retirement from the 
Coalition Cabinet after the armistice was signed. He quit the 
government because of the disestablishment of the Welsh church. 
After many millions of the finest youth of the world had been 
slaughtered to make the world safe for Great Britain, one might 
be justified in looking upon a statesman, who was ready to leave 
his government in the lurch because of a theologic difl:'erence in 
opinion, as something of a curiosity, if not an anachronism. 
However, it illustrates the tenacity of the Cecil type. His letter 
of resignation was dated November 21, 1918. 

"My dear Prime Minister: As you know, I have been con- 
sidering very anxiously the policy of the government with regard 
to the Welsh church. I understand that your letter to Bonar 
Law is to be taken as the final and authoritative exposition of 
that policy. If that be so, I am very reluctantly compelled to say 
that I cannot regard it as satisfactory, for the following reasons: 



xxiv Foreword 

"(1) It treats disestablishment as accepted by its former op- 
ponents. I am, on the contrary, as much opposed to it and the 
method by which it was accomplished as ever I was, and if I do 
not ask for it to be reversed, it is mainly because the chief harm, 
the rejection of the Church by the State, is now done and cannot 
be remedied. 

"(2) It deals with disendowment as if it was unobjectionable 
in itself, but admits that, owing to subsequent events, a com- 
passionable allowance to the Welsh church might be made. To 
me disendowment is still an act of spoliation, objectionable both 
as a conversion to worldly uses of funds properly applicable to 
religious purposes, and as an attack on the security of property. 

"(3) It is silent about the exclusion of the Welsh bishops and 
clergy from Convocation, and about such relatively minor mat- 
ters as the alienation of the churchyards, which have caused ex- 
treme bitterness among churchmen. 

"In these circumstances, what ought I to do? I am deeply 
pledged by word and conduct to the defense of the church in 
Wales, and recent events have, if possible, strengthened my con- 
viction that nothing should be done to impair the efficiency of any 
religious agency. If your letter to Bonar Law were the pro- 
gramme of a new government, as in substance it is, I should be 
clearly precluded from joining it. It seems to me wholly clear 
that I ought not, by retaining office in the present government, 
to make myself responsible for a policy which I am unable to 
approve. With very real regret, therefore, I must ask you to 
transmit my resignation to the king." 

It is worth noting that Lord Robert requests the transmission 
of his resignation "to the king" for final action. 

In his reply, Mr. David Lloyd George assures Lord Robert 
that it will be "submitted to his majesty." 

Such were the mental attitudes of the men Great Britain sent 
to the Peace Conference, determined each one that in no circum- 
stances should Irish aspiration for self-government be con- 
sidered. 

To whom then could Ireland turn with her appeal for recogni- 
tion, for so small a favor that her claims at least be heard even 
though they be not allowed? To France? No. France will 
be loved by all the world so. long as the human race endures 
for many magnificent virtues. The afifection for France in 
America will increase as the years go by, despite the profiteering 
of her shopmen at the expense of American soldiers. France 
knows how to die, as well as how to live ; but France does not 
know two attributes that betimes are associated with certain other 



Foreword xxv 

nations — ingratitude and coarseness. 

France, bleeding white, was at first aided by England, and 
both, when later staggering under the German blow and in dan- 
ger of hourly collapse, were rescued by the Americans — the men, 
money and supplies from the United States. England's diplomatic 
pledge to France was sixty thousand men, but with the marvelous 
speed of the German war machine in crushing Belgium, overrun- 
ning northern France and stopping only at the gates of Paris, 
England went into the war whole-heartedly, not to save France 
and avenge Belgium, but to save herself. The collapse of France, 
after the collai)se of Russia, would have put the German hordes 
in possession of the channel ports; would have resulted possibly 
in the removal of the French fleet from further eft'ective partici- 
pation in the war, and probably cut ofl:" India and East South 
Africa from communication with England. The very existence 
of the British Empire was hanging in the balance and Britain 
was fighting with her back against the wall — for Britain ! 

France, whatever the psychologic phases of the war, was 
grateful to England. She is grateful to the United States. France 
is pre-eminently the nation of gratitude and does not consider her- 
self unworthy or mean in proclaiming it. Hence, when England's 
peace delegates slammed the door in Ireland's face, it was not for 
France to protest. Ireland still was an "internal question" of the 
British Em])ire. France did not question the pronouncement, for 
it was not France's place to do so. France was not under any 
obligations to Ireland, either political or altruistic. There is com- 
plete justification for her position. Hers was solely a war in 
defense of her hearth and not for the announced purpose of pro- 
claiming a new world — not even a world made safe for democ- 
racy. She was not fighting to free small nations ; she was fighting 
to save her soul. 

To Italy? No. Italy had a secret treaty with Great Britain. 
In part remuneration for Italy's coming into the war on the side 
of the Allies, she was to secure, with the aid of Great Britain, not 
only the "rectification" of her frontier to the north — irridenta — 
but England was pledged to see to it that her eastern frontier 
was extended across the Adriatic and for some distance up and 
down and behind the Dalmatian and Istrian shores. There may • 
have been other "arrangements," but the main considerations are 
sufficient for our purpose here. This secret treaty bound Eng- 
land to do these things for Italy, and Italy was bound to co- 
operate with Great Britain. Of course, the treaty never was 
meant for public scrutiny in the first instance, and probably would 
not have been disclosed save for unforeseen eventualities over 



xxvi Foreword 

which the signatories had no control. 

Italy, therefore, went to the Peace Conference as the ally of 
Great Britain ; not only the ally but relying upon Great Britain's 
word for Italy's share of the spoils, if there were to be any spoils. 
Obviously Italy was in no position to dictate to England ; surely 
not with respect to Ireland, which was an "internal question." 
Italy was not in the war to spread any new ideas, to insist on 
the brotherhood of man. Italy was fighting for revenge, for the 
recovery of stolen goods, for her own integrity. 

To Japan? No. Japan was under diplomatic and treaty obli- 
gations to Great Britain. And the handing over of the Shantung 
province makes of Japan a real ally, a heart ally of Great Britain, 
whereas, prior to that time, Ja])an was merely a paper ally. This 
concession not only makes Japan the overseer and protector of 
the British Empire's eastern flank, while they both commercially 
exploit the Orient, but, with the Philippines given their inde- 
pendence, takes the United States out of the East, and exposes 
the Pacific to the full development of Nipponese aspirations, naval 
and commercial. If war is possible between Japan and the 
United States, which, we pray God Almighty may never befall. 
England probably would have great difficulty in not supportmg 
Japan, for England and Japan are now together, and the ruling 
class of each nation is concerned with empire building. To both 
Ireland is a joke. 

To whom, then, could Erin — the Niobe of nations — address 
her plea? To America? Certainly! For the representatives of 
the United States at the Quay d'Orsay, and at Versailles, were the 
representatives of the only nation standing on the specific pledge 
that every nationality in the world should secure the right, through 
the world war, to self-determination. The other nations assented 
to it tacitly when they welcomed the United States into the war. 

The Eagle, not involved in the family quarrels of Europe, held 
aloof until such time as it was apparent that not only the Euro- 
pean nations but the entire human family was facing perdition. 
Civilization, as we know it, of the entire world seemed to be poised 
on the brink of the abyss. There were, too, outrages against the 
dignity and the integrity of the United States that were in them- 
selves sufficient provocation for a declaration of war, but it was 
not these provocations that actuated solely or even in a major 
degree the United States in entering the w^ar, if we are to read 
literally the interpretations of our high resolves as stated to the 
world by the President of the United States. The clear words of 
our President carried to every mind, not only in America but 
throughout the whole world, the outstanding declaration that at 



Foreword xxvii 

the close of this war, should the Allies be successful, there should 
not be an ethnic strain in the world against whom the door of self- 
government would be closed. Our tremendous sacrifices, our 
loading upon our own people a debt that will weigh heavily for 
generations, even for centuries, were predicated on the unequivo- 
cal and solemn pledge that there should ensue, with our victorious 
arms, "universal domination of right by consent of free people;" 
"a world safe for democracy, its peace planted on the trusted 
foundation of political liberty;" and such a brotherhood of man, 
not in any one spot on the earth, but in the wdiole world, that "the 
rights of nations great and small and the privileges of men 
everywhere to choose their way of life and obedience" should not 
again be questioned by human authority. 

The right "of men everywhere to choose their way of life and 
obedience" thrilled not alone Christendom, but all peoples. It 
penetrated to the remotest jungles of India and Africa. It en- 
raptured and spurred Mohammedan and Buddhist and Brahman 
and the black man of darkest Africa. It came to men in the re- 
motest parts of the earth, in the islands of the sea, as the dawn 
of an era they had despaired of enjoying on this sphere. The 
solemn declaration carried no ciualification. It emblazoned across 
the universe, in letters of burning tire, the very principle of the 
Sermon on the Mount, that men everywhere, not merely men in 
Jugo-Slavia, in Czecho-Slovakia, in Poland, in Mesopotamia, in 
Armenia, in Syria, in Turkey, in Croatia, in Dalmatia, in Esthonia, 
in Finland, but men in India, in Africa, in Porto Rico, and in 
Ireland should now enjoy the right "to choose their way of life 
and obedience." Ireland was not excluded from that promise. 
No conditions were laid down. That pledge did not carry with it 
a single reci[)rocal obligation. It did not question what nations 
had done, or what their immediate attitude with respect to the 
world war was ; it raised no doubts ; it was not susceptible to con- 
troversy. There was no ground on which an argument could be 
based. It was flat-footed. It was definite. It was a finality. 

India thrilled even in its blackest spots, and. as a result of this 
promised boon, India's national aspirations quickened more in a 
fortnight than they had been stirred in countless centuries before. 
There is today in India a Home Rule movement that has passed 
beyond the infant stage. There are three hundred and fifty mil- 
lions of people in India. Who will be bold enough to forecast 
the catastrophe that may be visited upon the earth by these and 
other millions when, grown to a fuller stature of nationality and 
healthy renascence, they seek to avenge what they may be pleased 
to tell their peoi)le was "The Crime of Paris"? 



xxviii Foreword 

What about China? Is not China inchided in "the rights of 
nations great and small and the privileges of men everywhere to 
choose their way of life and obedience"? Will the millions of 
Chinese who have thrown off autocracy, the rule of force, the 
oppression and suppression of the masses by the few, be appeased 
by the explanation that forty millions of their liberty-loving 
brothers were handed over to another nation through the dictates 
of "enlightened expediency"? 

United States Senator Hiram Johnson of California, speaking 
in Springfield, Massachusetts, July 13, 1919, said: 

"To the Japanese Empire, with only sixty million people, forty 
million Chinese were handed unjustly and cruelly. To the 
autocracy of the Orient, we handed forty million of the Repub- 
licans of China. We made the Orient 'safe for democracy' by 
dismembering its only democracy and handing its parts to the 
strongest autocracy on earth. The blackest page in all our his- 
tory was written when our name was signed to the treaty deliv- 
ering Shantung to Japan. It makes a mockery of our pretensions 
and if the Senate permits it to stand, it stamps us forever with its 
infamy. The delivery of China's fairest province violated not 
only every word that has been spoken by us concerning the peace, 
but every principle of fairness, justice and honor. Its justifica- 
tion by the thick and thin administration newspapers as well as 
by the very good people who advocate the League of Nations with- 
out knowing a thing in the world about it, is that ultimately the 
league of nations will right the wrong. But remember, if we 
adopt the League of Nations, we, the ninety-six men sitting in the 
Senate, guarantee the crime for all time. The peace treaty gives 
Stantung to Japan, and the League of Nations covenant guaran- 
tees to maintain present arrangements with American blood and 
treasure. We first rob China and enslave forty million people and 
then underwrite the wrong and guarantee by our arms that it 
shall never be righted." 

At the very hour the map-makers of the new world were as- 
suming to write down the destinies of mankind at Paris, however 
high-minded and sincere they believed themselves to be, England 
was dropping aerial torpedoes in the Punjab, was greeting the 
natives as they came from their jungles and their villages to re- 
joice in the end of the rule of a nation by a nation, to write into 
their incantations the new language of a new world — "peace 
planted on the trusted foundation of political liberty" and the 
"privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and 
obedience" — with death-dealing missiles from the air! 

Why should India be ruled by England? It's a fair question 



Foreword xxix 

— now. Why should the one hundred famihes of the inner ruhng 
class in a small island in the North Sea hold in their hands the 
right of life and death, the right of slavery or freedom, over three 
hundred and fifty millions of people, thousands of miles away — - 
a people between whom and England there is nothing in com- 
mon, except commercial exploitation — a people of different lan- 
guage, different climate, different institutions, different religion, 
and a different outlook on life? Does not India come within one 
of the two classifications of "great and small nations everywhere"? 

In the very hours, moreover, the backsliders were busy at 
Paris, England, too, was dropping bombs from the air over Egypt, 
and in the very hours, moreover, Ireland, but a night's journey 
from the seat of the British Empire, was held in subjection by 
British bayonets, by British armored trains, by British bombing 
gas, by British artillery. This was the same Ireland that, alone of 
all the nations of the earth, after the signing of the armistice, held 
its plebiscite and declared for self-determination by a unanimity 
of the public will greater than that expressed by any nation in 
the world's history in declaring its fundamentals of nationhood. 
Was Ireland a "domestic question" when we solemnly pledged the 
world that men everywhere would be protected in their right, 
human and divine, to choose their way of life and obedience? By 
what inexplicable destiny should the God of Nations forsake the 
chosen people? 

By what strange myopia were we afflicted that we could not 
see in the glistening mirrors at Versailles the shades of Washing- 
ton and Lincoln — even the face of the "Man of Sorrows," Him 
they called the Christ? There was but one place whither Ireland 
could seek refuge — to the eerie crag on which the eagle was 
poised. Erin sought the eagle only to find it arrayed in strange 
garb. The eagle had grown great paws and a flowing mane. The 
eagle was within the lion. 

Every line of this contention applies with equal force to the in- 
sular possessions of the United States. Porto Rico and the 
Philippines, by the straightforward reading of our solemn declara- 
tion of war aims, have the undisputed right, if a majority of the 
respective populations want it, to set up their own governments. 
If a majority desire to maintain the status quo, then that is the 
vox Dei, and we stand silenced. If a majority of Ireland desire 
to be an appanage of the Crown, then there is nothing more to be 
said. But we cannot make it sauce for the goose only. We cannot 
extend self-determination to Poland and ignore Porto Rico — if 
Porto Rico desires to be wholly free. 

Ireland is entitled to her independence, because a vast major- 



XXX Foreword 

ity of her people demand it, by the terms we laid down when we 
went to the world's rescue, as we believed we were doing. All the 
Allies assented to the doctrine of self-determination, by silence at 
least ; by failing to make articulate their reservations where they 
did not formally acknowledge the principle. Lloyd George did 
publicly accept it. Because none of the Allies was then protesting, 
because the millions of children, politically speaking, in India and 
Africa, as well as our own people, so understood it, are we not 
embittering more than half the world by renigging now? Are we 
not sowing rather than uprooting the seeds of a new and frightful 
holocaust, when we might bring the whole human family into a 
"parliament of man and federation of the world," an opportunity 
that may not recur? Is the United States, the inspiration of all 
liberty loving peoples, about to sacrifice confidence everywhere? 

President Wilson warned us, on his return, that we must sign 
the Paris covenant or suffer the loss of trade. We did not go into 
the world war for trade or to promote an international banking 
trust. We went in to bring human liberty, the privilege of self- 
government, to every nation in the world, great and small ; to 
protect the human family everywhere, and the right to choose 
methods of life and obedience. Whether internationalism is the 
thing now is not the issue. The issue is : Shall we make good? 

Lloyd George, speaking in the House of Commons on the day 
the peace treaty was approved, said: "You can't cash German 
waterways at the Bank of England." He might have added : 
"You can't cash the Fourteen Points at the Bank of England." 
But he didn't. Anyway, the Bank of England was not the motive 
behind our participation. We have no right to say, after it is all 
over, that we didn't mean what we said on April 6, 1917. 

Countless millions of humans are still in the primary class in 
the school of government. Millions are yet in the kindergarten. 
But all could understand when the teacher promised them, with 
no exceptions, that if they would study hard and be good chil- 
dren, they would be given a ticket of admission to the Liberty 
swimming hole. Even the incorrigibles, the bad boys, were to 
enjoy the same privileges. Are we not disillusioning the help- 
less millions, to our disadvantage and to the loss of our good 
name ? Are we not now proclaiming our reservations when it 
is too late? We promised them a plum pudding and delivered a 
thistle. Are we not laying up for the old earth grievances, resent- 
ments and hatreds, which some day may remind the living of the 
ancient Gaelic prophecy that the end of the world will come when 
men fly in the air like birds (aeroplanes) and swim beneath the 
waves like fishes (submarines) ? 

^ 



Foreword xxxi 

Even the black men, when you put uniforms on them and sent 
them to France, understood your promise to include social as well 
as political and economic equality. As these lines are being writ- 
ten whites and blacks are slashing-, stabbing and murdering one 
another in the heart of Chicago. 

When the state put a United States uniform on the black man 
it stamped him a white soul. You never should have sent him 
into this war unless you were ready to acknowledge that. When 
men are dying on the battlefield, that you and we may live on as 
free men, their religion and the color of their skin are no longer 
of passing notice. Heroes are not classified in respect of the 
pigment in their cuticle. There is no such thing as a "black" 
hero. A hero is a hero. That's God's definition. There is no 
other. And you never can undo that. You must now simplify 
your etymology, for the old order has passed away. When you 
statesmen pulled ofif this war, or failed to stop it, you started 
something ! You grasped the nettle boldly and you never can un- 
loose your hold without being stung to the very heart's core. You 
should have thought of these things on August 3, 1914 — the day 
before ! 

Not a street car or elevated train is running today in all Chi- 
cago. The white workers also have struck. Did you not solemnly 
promise the men of toil that there should be a dividing up after 
the war ,that there no longer would be the accumulation of swollen 
power and profiteering at the expense of those who tended the 
vineyards? Can't you statesmen understand that those who do the 
drudgery of the world see you and your money changers enjoying 
the cool breezes of summer resorts, see you only in your clubs 
and exclusive hotels while they go about in the agony of soul and 
body endeavoring to clothe and feed their children, even to pay 
the landlord lest they be ejected into the streets? Can't you see 
this was not an ordinary war? Can't you understand this war was 
not a political campaign in which you could promise anything to 
win by? This was a world convulsion, touching every human be- 
ing on the earth. And the masses of earth are now aroused, be- 
cause you fascinated them with your lure of words, spoken at a 
time of great emotion, at a time when you were facing what you 
were pleased to term the menace of autocracy for the whole 
human family. Our time is likened unto a trained elephant that, 
suddenly going mad, snaps the slender chain of control from the 
superior mind and rends the tent in ribbons. 

And it will not longer avail to shout "pro-German" every time 
an American thinks of America, or "Bolshevist" every time a 
coal miner asks for a little better division of the profits. That 



xxxii Foreword 

scarecrow has ceased to function. 

The masses are not to be blamed if they do not understand the 
mental processes of statesmen and their reservations based on ex- 
pediency — after the danger is over. They took you at your word. 
They will have nothing less. The masses are not thinking of ex- 
pediency. They are thinking of LIFE. 

They demand that you now divide up — both liberty and 
privilege. 

President Wilson, the press dispatches asserted, was greeted 
with the "rebel yell" as he entered the chamber of the United 
States Senate, forty-eight hours after his return from Europe 
with a covenant of the so-called League of Nations. It was 
not the "rebel yell" of Ireland, but the "rebel yell" of the late 
Confederate States of America which, temporarily, seceded from 
the Union, even as royalist Ulster now seeks to separate herself 
from the rest of Ireland. The yell was not, we may be assured, 
uttered by way of emphasizing the ascendency of the South in the 
present American government or in an effort to gloat over the 
North. It was merely, since we are all united now, so far as 
sectionalism is involved, the pride of a birthplace. President 
Wilson is a native of the Southland, which sought and received 
help from Europe in the effort to destroy Abraham Lincoln and 
the Union. In this instance that help came from the Tory class 
of England, whose affection for the Confederacy was exceeded 
only by their hatred of the anti-royalist views of Lincoln. Tory 
England helped the Confederacy for the purpose of dismem- 
bering the Union, splitting it into w^arring sections, and then 
benevolently restoring the remnants of the upstart Yankee nation 
to the benign wing of His Majesty the King — King of Great 
Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India, and the Islands of the 
Seas, by the alleged grace of God, and not by accident in a royal 
bedchamber. 

Be that as it may, it is not at all amazing that there should 
exist, even at this late day, a sort of lingering sympathy with 
Great Britain in the American Southland, since gratitude for aid 
even in a wrong cause, or a losing cause at least, is not altogether 
reprehensible. 

These observations are here made lest our cousins back in 
"Mother" England, having no means of understanding other than 
the press dispatches, stupidly rush headlong into the bally rot 
that the United States Senate, with all its augustness, has degen- 
erated again to the extremely and extraordinarily low level of 
"unparalleled effrontery" where it was possible, even permitted, 
to join in vociferating: 

"Up Ireland !" 

Chicago, July 28, 1919. C. N. W. 



F 



CHAFIER I 

THIRTY DAYS 

UNDAMENTALLY, Ireland has been a nation for about 

thirty-five hundred years. It was not, however, until April 
and May, 1918, that the fundamental character so often expressed 
in abortive uprisings since Strongbow (1170) defined the state 
as a Republic. 

The approximate thirty days between the middle of April and 
the 19th of May will be recorded by impartial history as marking 
the most significant coming .together of the people's minds in Ire- 
land's history; or the bringing to the surface at least of the cen- 
turies-old thought that lay nearest to Ireland's heart. In these 
thirty days, Ireland in its soul became a government of the peo- 
ple, by the people and for the people. 

On many occasions since the twelfth century groups of Irish- 
men in Ireland had proclaimed some form of self-government, 
-■ but not until the epochal thirty days of 1918 had the overwhelming 
majority struck hands to take the final plunge — a Republic. For 
weal or woe, that compact has been consummated, and the men 
and women, even children, of the new order seek neither com- 
promise nor quarter of the "de facto" government in the island. 
On the pronouncement of Sinn Fein they have staked their 
lives. That may mean the eventual massacre of the majority by 
an immeasurably stronger military force from England. If that 
is the alternative, then massacre it will be, for England, in our 
judgment, is not now dealing wnth an isolated group; she is not 
playing the North against the South ; or Protestant against Cath- 
olic. She is now dealing with a majority (whether that majority 
be in the right or in the wrong is beside the question), and faces 
the alternative of dealing squarely with that majority, as it under- 
stands squareness, or resorting to a slaughter that will shock the 
civilized ( ?) world. 

This tremendous amalgamation of fundamental sentiment, 
this bringing together of all nationalistic factions for liberty or 
death, was due to two major acts of the English government, 
namely, the threatened conscription of Irish youth for military 
service (which, as subsequent narrative will disclose, was be- 
lieved by the Irish to be involved in subterfuge) and the swoop- 
ing down upon the Sinn Fein and Republican leaders, men and 
I women, on May 18, 1918, their deportation across the Irish sea, 

1 



2 The Irish Republic 

and their incarceration in English internment camps, jails and 
convict prisons. 

The surge in men's minds and hearts was terrible. Whether 
they died that moment was a matter of utter indifference. Hatred ' 
of England reached a new high point. To the eye-witness of 
these events, this rending of the veil of restraint, this irruption 
of the soul of a people, arising in its majesty to proclaim to all 
the world that it was ready for the firing squad or the scaffold, 
but never again would submit alive to the imposition of govern- , 
mental rule by any outside power on the earth, regardless of 
whether that rule might be good or bad — to one detached and 
viewing the si)ectacle as from a hilltoiJ — it was inspiriting. 

David twirling his sling! A mere handful defying the bayon- 
eted legions of an Empire — boldly challenging the last stand of 
rule by force, of entrenched government of a nation by another 
nation — voiding their rheum in the very eye of his majesty the 
king ! For the handful said : 

"To hell with the king!" 

In the presence of such audacity the king's legions at first ^ 
were transfixed with awe and admiration. The immensity of their 
daring provoked the applause of their executioners. Here was 
something without fear, jeering at physical death, defying the 
opinion of the world, something divested of flesh and blood. Here 
was the Ego of a nation. Here was a naked soul. 

The Swiss guards were giving away again; 1789 had become 
1918. It was not altogether the cry of desperate men; it was 
the lusty exuberance of free men, bursting a shackle for the 
moment, though they die with the next exhalation. ^ 

Erin had arisen from the sepulchre. 

Ant vlncere ant niori! < 

We may question their discretion ; we stand uncovered con- 
templating their courage. 

The amalgamation did not include all. There is yet a small ^ 
class in Ireland that is not Irish, other than that of residence. 
Those who comprise this group despise the real Irish, the Irish - 
who love the traditions as well as the sod of Ireland. They vener- 
ate the king. They are thorough-going royalists. They are Anglo- - 
Saxon at heart, neither Celts nor Gaels. They may be termed the 
"big-business" group. They have their roots in Threadneedle 
street. They are intolerant, fanatical to an amazing degree and .<■ 
unwilling to co-operate with the vast majority in making Ire- 
land the shrine at which the nations of the earth, with good ?*;! 
grace, might attend in commemoration of the land whence came 




*S« i/^uu/t»<^ 



IN UNIFORM OF EASTER WEEK, 1916. 



The Irish Republic 3 

the liberties of so many peoples. For purposes of identification, 
they are termed the Ulsterites, which is misleading in a degree. 
Not all Ulsterites are royalists, opponents of any kind of self- 
government. But most all royalists are Ulsterites, excepting a 
comparatively small group of Unionists in the South. However, 
Ulster, geographically speaking, is rapidly swinging to the Re- 
publican side. The expatriation of half a dozen leaders in the 
North probably would result in a comparatively short time in re- 
moving the sectional line and the religious line also as it relates to 
internal politics. 

What remains of the wall that keeps Catholics and Protestants 
apart in Irish politics is sustained by adroit leaders, and the truth 
is that this intolerance is confined for the most part to the im- 
placable Catholic baiters of the North of the Carson type. At the 
same time, many of the persistent Republicans in Ireland are 
Protestants from the North. 

It would not be fair to picture the royalists of Ulster as men 
without many sterling qualities. They are rugged. They are 
not immoral, though possibly unmoral politically. They are build- 
ers. They are successful. They are the best haters in the world. 
They differ from their fellow-men in the South and West in that 
they never or rarely forgive or forget. The southern Irishman 
will shake hands with and forgive an antagonist, after he has 
given him a good thrashing. Not so with the royalist of Ulster; 
he carries the vendetta to his grave. He still hates those he has 
conquered, and he is in one respect comparable to the soul of 
liverty-loving Ireland — he, too, is unconquerable, in his soul, and 
that is why the Protestant rebel in Ireland's history stands out so 
conspicuously in the tortuous story. When he does take a stand 
for self-government, he is an even more irreconcilable foe of Eng- 
land than the Catholic. This may account for the fact that so 
many Presbyterian ministers faced the firing squad and mounted 
the scaffold after the '98 rebellion. The fact, however, remains 
that that portion of Protestant Ireland which still adheres to the 
king is in the small minority, and if Ireland is to l)e considered 
even in theory a nation, then it follows that the minority must 
submit to the majority, since rule bv minorities is subversive of 
the very principle of human liberty. 

Royalist Ulster is important in the new day only as it now has 
the backing of the British government, with the British army 
and navy and air force at its disposal. Which is a considerable 
backing, it must be admitted. It may not always be so supported, 
for this is a day when governments change over night, even great 
governments ; a day when the whole world is growing warm on 



4 The Irish Republic 

the proposition that governments derive their just power from the 
consent of the governed. 

England, in the course of poUtical evohition, may not prove 
the exception. Should the labor forces in England overthrow the 
present government and force the king to recognize them in the 
forming of a new cabinet, Ireland's road would be much smoother. 
Immediate Dominion Home Rule could then be had for the mere 
consent to have it. And Ulster would submit, despite the bit- 
ter diatribes against republicanism that have obsessed the 
North since 1912. The recognition of the Irish Republic probably 
would soon follow the ascendency of the labor party at West- 
minster. 



CHAPTER II 



MURDER AFOOT 



THIL infinite mischief done in Ireland by the passage of the 
conscription act was not underestimated by the Enghsh peo- 
ple themselves, both press and populace. In this connection the dis- 
tinction should be kept in mind constantly between the English 
governing class and the mass of the English people. There was 
a very considerable revulsion of feeling against the proposed con- 
scription of Ireland on the part of the English masses, who them- 
selves were submitting to it without serious protest. This paradox 
might have been due to the fact that in England the thought was 
cjuite strong that conscription for Ireland was aimed more at 
Irish nationhood than it was intended to increase the fighting 
forces. Perhaps this opposition to their own government's act 
was nowhere more pronounced and more radical tlian among the 
organized labor forces of England. They immediately, through 
their executive committees, passed ringing resolutions, demanding 
that the conscription act be recalled, so far as Ireland was in- 
volved, and that the government should set itself at once to pro- 
viding a large measure of self-government for Ireland. Out of 
the mouths of Englishmen themselves, whose loyalty and patriot- 
ism could not possibly be ciuestioned, came the fiercest denuncia- 
tion of the government's program for Ireland. A considerable 
faction of the British people had no misunderstanding as to what, 
in the final analysis, conscription of the people on the other side 
of the Irish sea would mean, particularly wuth respect to the en- 
mity it w^ould engender both in the British dominions and else- 
where. 

In May, 1918. the Manchester (England) Guardian, an eye- 
witness to all that was doing, privileged to understand in an un- 
usual degree what was going on behind the scenes in Westminster, 
and sp,eaking as an English publication, assuming to voice the 
sentiment of the masses of the English-speaking people them- 
selves, printed the following editorial : 

"The signs accumulate that deadly work is preparing for Ire- 
land. Yesterday it was stated that free intercourse would cease 
a few days hence, and people could travel to and from the coun- 
try marked down for the rule of force only by permit. Today we 
learn that the Commander of the Forces in Ireland, Sir Bryan 
Mahon, wise and humane soldier and good Irishman, is resigning 
his post and it is natural that Irishmen should draw from the fact 



6 The Irish Republic 

no happy augury. To those who may think that the violation of 
Ireland now planned by our Prime Minister and his government 
is a small and passing matter, we would commend the letter, which 
we publish today, of one of Ireland's best-known writers and fin- 
est spirits, Mr. G. W. Russell, the admired 'AE.' It is not for 
lack of warning that this crime against this country, no less than 
against Ireland, will be committed; it is for lack of imagination, 
lack of attention, lack of the understanding which comes only of 
knowledge and sympathy. We do not think the mass of the peo- 
ple are to blame. They do not realize that murder, the murder 
of a nation, is afoot. When they see the work begun, they will be 
shocked, perhaps horrified, but it will be too late. That is the 
burden of 'AE.'s' warning. And what, meanwhile, are our Lib- 
eral leaders doing? Now^ surely, is the time for them to speak, or 
forever hold their peace." 

Mr. George W. Russell, here referred to, comes of Ulster 
Protestant stock. No inflation of the imagination can in any wise 
picture Mr. Russell as prejudiced in behalf of Irish nationalism 
because of Catholic leanings. On the contrary, were the tree 
inclined as the twig was bent, all his prejudice would be in opposi- 
tion to the majority of the Irish people. Russell can in no man- 
ner be put down as a special advocate of the Irish freedom cause 
on the ground that his early training was in that camp. He has 
perhaps one of the greatest intellects in Ireland today. 
Russell is not one of those who would like to see Ireland exalted 
by the destruction of the British Empire. Great soul that he is, 
fired with an unconquerable zeal for the free play of a sovereign 
power in Ireland, yet, doubtless, he dreams of the day when peace 
and good will may come back to Ireland not only as between 
Ulster and the South, not only as between Protestant and Cath- 
olic, but also as between Great Britain herself and the Irish nation. 

It is, therefore, important that Russell's appeal in this dark 
hour of hatred and mounting revolution in Ireland should be read 
by Americans. If an unbiased American tribunal sought an un- 
biased opinion in Ireland, perhaps no one man in the island would 
be better equipped, both by intellect and fairness, to lay down the 
whole case than Russell. At the very hour the British govern- 
ment was perfecting the machinery to deport from Ireland Ire- 
land's real leaders, both intellectual and ])atriotic, Russell issued 
his brilliant a])peal to the English government to stop and take 
stock of what it was about to do before it was too late. His ap- 
peal was not that of an unfriendly critic, at least not that of an 
unintelligent critic. His appeal came from the heart of a man 
who loved his fellow men, who still loves them, and still prays in 



The Irish Republic 7 

his sanctum (for he rarely goes to church, although a man of 
very deep reverence for the Christian creed), that the voice of 
God, in so far as it can be interpreted by finite mind, shall be list- 
ened to by all peoples of the earth. 

At the very moment this appeal was wrung from this fine 
soul, Cough's Fifth Army had all but been annihilated and the 
German hordes were on the way to Soissons, to Montdidier, to 
Belleau Woods, to Chateau Thierry, and to Paris ; it was at the 
moment when perhaps neither political nor military leader could 
clearly see what was ahead ; almost anything was possible. It was 
the supreme crisis of the great war, with the whole world trem- 
bling in. the balance. 

Keenly appreciative of this situation, the soul of George Rus- 
sell spoke to his people in England, saying: 

"Undeterred by any warnings from those who know us, our 
rulers seem determined to force military service upon the Irish 
people. The people of England should realize the danger, not 
merely to Ireland, but to the Empire, of the policy of those they 
maintain in power. The situation is full of such tragic possibili- 
ties, that truth should be spoken now as if men were speaking to 
God and not to one another. I write as an Irishman interpreting 
my own people, but not, I hope, without understanding and sym- 
pathy for the people of England. I would not willingly wound 
any in this crisis of their history, for I know there is hardly a 
household in Great Britain to which death has not drawn nigh, 
and its people are bitter at heart about my people, are judging 
and condemning them. They have cried out against the law 
which left Ireland free to act as it willed in this war, while with 
them everything from boyhood to the verge of age was sum- 
moned for the need of the state. In theory, Ireland is part of 
the United Kingdom. In theory, it has obligations to the Empire. 
Acting now on that theory, the state imposes military service on 
behalf of the Empire on the manhood of this country. It is met 
at once by Irish Nationalism everywhere in unanimity in refusal 
to obey that law. It is this opposition I wish to interpret. I w^ould 
not have any think it is either factious or ignoble. However pain- 
ful it is for English people to hear it, the truth must be told. 

"What is opposed to our rulers, what they are trying to over- 
come, is the soul of a nation. They have never understood the 
subjective life of Ireland, because they were contented with domi- 
nation over all that was apparent. Your people, in their schools 
and universities, have been taught that Ireland was an integral 
part of the United Kingdom. You made a law, and it become 
so. Ireland as a nation\lisappeared for you but never so to its 



8 The Irish Republic 

own imagination. It never accepted the Union. Never at any 
time was there a psychic tie corresponding to the physical fact. 
British authority at all periods in Irish history, as today, rested 
solely on superior power. There was never a year in the seven 
centuries of that dominion when the vast majority of the people 
were not opposed to it. When overcome in rebellion they waited 
sullenly, silently and steadfastly for the hour of doom falling upon 
this, as upon all empires in history. They desired to manifest 
their genius in a civilization of their own. That feeling has been 
as deep, indeed much deeper, and more self-conscious since the act 
of Union was passed ; and today, partly through a recovery of the 
ancient culture, partly by the reaction against state policy, that 
self-consciousness of nationality is more vivid, passionate and 
dominant than at any period in Irish history. 

"It is at this moment the Irish nation is denied rights over 
either soul or body. The principles for which Great Britain is 
contending in this war may be right. Many who most bitterly 
oppose British policy in Ireland think they are right. But the 
enemies of Ireland would not have free service. Their agents 
here, as I know, and as it was confessed to me, objected to Na- 
tionalists and Catholics enlisting in the army, as it removed the 
main argument against self-government on which they relied. 
They wanted Nationalists dragged as slaves and humiliated, and 
this at a time when self-consciousness and pride in nationality had 
become a burning flame. Sympathy was turned to indifference. 
Indifference was fanned into hostility, and I am afraid hostility 
is changing to bitter hate. I see all this with grief. I have always 
believed in brotherhood between peoples, and I think that hatred 
corrupts the soul of a nation. This last exercise of authority over 
us is not merely bringing death to the body, but to all that is 
spiritual, gentle or beautiful in the Irish nature. 

"Our people look on this last act of British power with that 
dilated sense of horror a child might feel thinking of one who had 
committed some sin which was awful and unbelievable, as the sin 
against the Holy Ghost. 

"What power, they wonder, except one inspired by spiritual 
wickedness, would weave this last evil for a land subdued, force 
it to warfare to uphold a power it hates, that has broken it, that 
has killed its noblest children, overthrown its laws, taken the 
sceptre. They turn in appeal to the Master of Life and sup- 
plicate Him, and they believe by conscience they are justified in 
resistance even to death. 

"I cannot expect many in England to sympathize with Irish 
feeling, but I may ask them to consider it in relation to the future 




Lloyd George in Lon'on 



The Irish Republic 9 

weal of the Empire. If they persist in forcing miUtary service 
upon Ireland, if they persist in breaking the Irish will, there will 
not be a parish where blood will not be shed. There will grow up 
a hate which will be inextinguishable, lasting from generation to 
generation. It will be fed by tradition ever}'where, and our people 
live by tradition. 'Here this man fell.' 'There that group made 
their last stand.' No expression of regret after the deed is done 
will wipe out those memories. They will be like that stain upon 
the hand of the queen in the darkest of all tragic dramas — the 
stain which was ruddy to the spiritual sense, and no purifying 
water could cleanse it. It will invade that great Republic where 
so many millions of our exiled children have their homes. 

"The Irish are capable of the most bitter as of the most gen- 
tle speech, and the darker side of that eloquence shall be turned 
against you. Millions of the bitterest tongues in the world will 
be incessantly wagging, breeding sedition in your dominions, and 
hostility against you in whatever alien state they may live. There 
are already many burdens laid on the weary Titan of empires. 
Will this burden be laid on it also? 

"I ask English people to consider in connection with this ques- 
tion, what may be the effect on the dominions of an unsatisfac- 
tory and inconclusive peace. When they go back, in the moral 
revulsion which comes on all communities after prolonged shed- 
ding of blood, when they think of the deed they have done, how 
life and treasure have been w^asted, and have not even — for this 
is possible — the pride in victory to uphold them, will it not lend 
force to those already numerous voices which hold that the tie 
of empire is a danger, involving young nations in ambitions and 
policies which hinder their growth? Rightly or wrongly, such 
things will be said, and none will argue them, none will lend them 
force and fire more than the Irish in the Empire. 

"I ask how, in the face of this, state policy in respect of Ire- 
land can be justified? The state has listened to bad counsellors. 
It consulted those who hated Irish nationality and not those who 
loved their country and who might have won it, through freedom 
given, to befriend and defend you also. The state listened to 
the few in Ireland and turned a deaf ear to the multitude. Now 
it needs the multitude ; and what use to the state are those coun- 
sellors who opposed Irish nationality, who have no respect for 
it, and who, as that memorable day of national protest showed, 
had not even respect from their own employees, for in three-quar- 
ters of Ireland no train ran, no work was done, no shop was 
opened, no newspaper appeared ? 

"You speak to a wide public. Through you, I wish to make 



10 The Irish Republic 

clear the feeling among my countrymen ere the deed is done 
and there remains nothing but a destiny. I have encroached much 
upon the space a paper can allot to its correspondents, but if this 
deed is done, you will have many columns recording things which 
will horrify whatever conscience remains in the world. 

"W'hat moral strength can come to you from a nation broken 
in its pride, shamed and bleeding? What aid to military power 
will be those who would now as readily turn their arms upon your 
officers as the enemy, for to such a pass has the unwisdom of 
our rulers brought this country ? I say to the English people, drop 
this thing and seek the way of friendship. It is not yet too late. 
Allow Ireland the freedom in government the majority of its 
people ask for, and trust to those who are free to defend a free- 
dom guaranteed by imperial law." 



11 



CHAPTER III 



ALICE STOPFORD GREEN 



STANDING beside Mr. Russell, considered by many scholars 
one of England's foremost historians, is Alice Stopford 
Green, widow of J. R. Green, whose history of the English people 
is well known. 

It was the writer's privilege to spend many charming and in- 
structive hours with this distinguished woman in her little den off 
Stephen's Green in Dublin, at the very time Cough's Fifth Army 
was being destroyed. 

Mrs. Green's ancestors were unbending Unionists. She was 
brought up in the Protestant Episcopal Church, the established 
church of the English government. Her grandfather was the 
Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Meath at a time when it was 
considered an act of piety to cut off the head of an Irishman 
who professed the Catholic faith. Her father was a high, func- 
tionary in this same established church in Meath. She was reared 
in Meath, surrounded entirely in her youth by influences, particu- 
larly religious, that made for intolerance and bigotry in a day 
when awful crimes were done in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 

Mrs. Green is not a member of the highest standing of her 
church today. She has not left her church; neither has she af- 
filiated herself with any other church. She told the writer that, 
against her will and all the forces of her nature, she was impelled 
to turn away, shudderingly, from the sheer ferocity that was 
borne in upon her as she was preparing the manuscript for her 
mediaeval history, King Henry II. So that any observations of 
Alice Stopford Green, interpreter of the inner shrine of a peo- 
ple, can in no manner whatsoever be construed as actuated by 
Catholic prejudice against the Castle government. W'e shall meet 
up with her again in this chronicle and a word of appreciation will 
be timely here. 

Mr. Green lived about five years after their marriage. He 
was a professor at Oxford. It was a love marriage in its finest 
sense. Her remarkable influence, the physicians said, prolonged 
his life at least three years. They were forced to go into the south 
of Europe for his health, and, while nursing him, she derived from 
this association her husband's passion for the drama of history'. 
At his death she spent three years revising his history of England 
and writing the epilogue. Her next pretentious undertaking as a 
historian was the history of Henry and Strongbow and their 



12 The Irish Republic 

times. Mr. Bryce, former English Ambassador to America, has 
stated that this work is one of the most brilUant pieces of his- 
torical writing on mediaeval times of which he has any knowledge. 
In addition to a prodigious amount of short stories, essays and 
observations on current events, Mrs. Green finally, at the request 
of English publishers, wrote her celebrated history of Ireland un- 
der the title of "Irish Nationality." 

The writer desires to digress at this point to suggest that this 
small volume alone, could it be placed in the hands of all thinking 
Americans, particularly in the hands of Protestants, such as I am, 
who in their early years perhaps got the impression that the Irish 
question was a religious question, doubtless would take the Irish 
question entirely out of American religious politics. 

In the months of April and May, Ireland's attitude at once 
raised the question of loyalty and disloyalty in the minds of 
Americans who had at best but a superficial, if not prejudiced, 
knowledge of Irish history and Irish character. Americans could 
not understand readily why Ireland, even after the United States 
had entered the great war, was resisting conscription, was refusing 
to contribute more of its man power to the successful prosecution 
of the war. It was perhaps the strongest indictment that England 
was able to bring to play against Ireland among the nations of the 
Allies. It was at this critical period that Mrs. Green handed to 
the writer a brochure on this topic. The censorship was such in 
Ireland and Great Britain that she despaired of its reaching the 
public. Lord Decies, husband of Vivian Gould, of New York, 
was then chief censor of Ireland, and although he was even 
stretching a point to preserve as far as possible the freedom of the 
press, it was not thought probable that he could, in view of his 
c^bligations to Great Britain, permit the general circulation of this 
statement. Accordingly, Mrs. Green delivered to the writer a 
proof of the subjoined statement. W'hether it has since appeared 
in the regular channels, I know not, but it was her suggestion that, 
if we thought it w^orth while, it should be cabled to America. For 
obvious reasons, this was not done. But she left the article in my 
keeping with explicit permission to make whatever use of it I 
saw 'fit. As a companion piece to Mr. Russell's appeal to Eng- 
land to understand Ireland before it was too late, Mrs. Green's 
appeal to America to try to understand Ireland is here recorded. 
She wrote, under the caption of "Loyalty and Disloyalty" : 

"A great Frenchman a hundred and fifty years ago, wondered 
that the world had not forever condemned the most evil of all 
forms of government — the rule of a Nation by a Ration. Such 
a rule is, indeed, the most tyrannous and the most intolerable, leav- 



The Irish Republic 13 

ing the people under it more helpless for resistance and more 
emptied of hope than any other system. 

"Government by a Nation is, so to speak, eternal in its 
monotony. Emperor or king may die, and his authority pass to 
a successor of other views ; a nation never dies, nor departs from 
its fundamental character. There can be no change of outlook on 
its own special interests, which have been created by its situation ; 
and from age to age its preoccupations remain the same, only in- 
creasing in intensity. 

"A single ruler and his personal advisors may hear an appeal 
to reason ; it is another matter to convince a nation made up of 
millions of private wills and of thousands of jealous interests, not 
to speak of ignorances and prejudices. The passions -of the crowd 
rise in flood to a torrent uncontrollable and irresistible. Even 
tyrant kings are compelled for their own safety to follow and 
yield to public opinion within reasonable time. There is no such 
necessity for a nation, which in its long collective life can afiford 
to turn away from appeals of a subject race — in prosperity 
through indifference and disdain, in adversity through panic. It 
can neglect the verdict of mankind, for the greater its reputa- 
tion for will to power and the strength of its arms, the less it 
cares to court the good opinion of the external world. In the rule 
of one nation by another all natural safeguards for the governed 
are in effect swept away. 

"It is this obnoxious type of government to which Ireland has 
been subjected for over two hundred and fifty years. As, how- 
ever, the form of Irish subjection in its complete and latest ex- 
I)ression, its final stage of evolution, is without precedent or paral- 
lel in politics, it is profitable for the student of history to trace its 
development. 

"In earlier times of English rule, government had been for- 
mally carried on by a 'Lord' or a 'King' of Ireland, with two 
Houses of Parliament sitting in the Pale, and representing the 
Norman, French and luiglish invaders. Heavy sufferings were 
inflicted on the people. But amid all evil there was some hope for 
the future. The position of Ireland was not wholly without dig- 
nity. It was a distinct Kingdom, co-ordinate with that of Eng- 
land, and w'as possessed consequently of rights which, as they 
occurred to it, in its character of a separate sovereignty, may in a 
manner be conveniently regarded as national rights. However 
foreign it may have been in its origins and in its first ideals, a Par- 
liament in Ireland did in truth provide groundwork and some con- 
ditions of the possibility of a later national life; in fact, under 
the Tudor Kings this Parliament of settlers who began to call 



14 The Irish Republic 

themselves 'Ireland-men,' showed itself capable of courage and 
zeal in defending the claims of Ireland to liberty and justice. The 
kings, moreover, who coveted from Ireland a revenue to main- 
tain their imperial state, and an army at their own bidding to in- 
crease their power, needed a pros[)erous and well-peopled island ; 
and the royal policy was to encourage trade and manufacture, and 
to favour the towns. 

"A decisive change, carrying with it tremendous consequences 
to Ireland, began with Cromwell, when the Commonwealth Par- 
liament, after beheading the king in Whitehall, took on them- 
selves his business and authority. Dominion passed to the English 
nation, which now took control of the Irish Lords and Com- 
mons, and of Ireland itself. The Parliament of England claimed 
supreme control and arrogated power to pass laws for Ireland 
over the head of the Irish Parliament. 

"The Kingdom of Ireland was thus suddenly degraded from 
the high status of a co-ordinate part of the King's dominions to a 
strictly subordinated position. Its inhabitants became a subject 
people under the English Parliament. Nor did they, in becoming 
English citizens, secure in return the privileges of English citizen- 
ship. The Irish Parliament was now cast into abject submission 
to the parliament of another nation. The new authority could 
compel assent to its widened powers from the foreign sovereigns, 
William III, who held his place solely by their election, and the 
Hanoverian kings, also dependent on a parliamentary title. With 
the remembrance of one monarch beheaded and another deposed, 
they were of necessity wholly subdued by degrees to the constitu- 
tional system which had established their own power. 

"Under this rule, Ireland suffered the utmost humiliation. The 
legislation of a multitude swayed by the fury of religious passion 
and trade bigotries, opened a new era^ — the era of the penal laws 
for the degredation of Irish Catholics, and commercial laws for 
the deliberate destruction of Irish industries. 

"The Irish Parliament meanwhile lived on in obscure slavery 
to the Parliament at Westminster, till the American War of In- 
dependence gave it the excuse and the opportunity of a less 
ignoble life. Roused by the spirit of the country to revive its 
ancient state, it forced from the English government in 1782 a 
statute declaring that (as in old times) the King, Lords, and Com- 
mons of Ireland could alone make laws for that nation, without 
interference from the English Parliament. With its new inde- 
pendence the country awoke to new life. The traveler in Ire- 
land can still see in every small town traces of activity and pros- 
perity that followed the work of a legislature established in the 




Alice Stopford Green 
the brilliant historian who has so wonderfully inter- 
preted the soul of ireland. 



The Irish Republic 15 

country, and interested to secure the welfare of their own people. 
"The revolt and brief revival of the Parliament from 1782 to 
1800 were crushed out by the Union, and from this time, the 
rule of the English nation became absolute. It was in a period 
of the darkest political reaction, when in the "Great War" the 
military spirit and the terror of democratic liberties were at their 
height, that the English Parliament established its own dominion, 
more powerful than of old since there was not even an apparent 
intermediary to stand for the rights of the subject country. Of 
its three Estates of the Realm, all were traditionally hostile to Ire- 
land. The House of Lords was, in fact, a i)urely English assem- 
bly, for if it held a minority of absentee Irish Peers, these were of 
their own caste by descent and marriage alliances, by tradition and 
prejudice. In the House of Commons, the Irish members, with 
a hundred votes against five hundred and seventy, were in a posi- 
tion of permanent inferiority to the representatives of the English 
people — and were held as a negligible quantity, except in cases 
where it suited English convenience to use them in party strife as 
make-weights in the balance of power. The complaint of Irish 
members today, that their presence in the English Parliament is 
a mockery, since they are not consulted on the gravest Irish 
questions, nor their advice even listened to in the most momentous 
legislation, is but a repetition of similar protests throughout the 
whole of the nineteenth century. The island w^as tossed like a 
football from one English party to another in the cynical game of 
politics. English interests were inevitably the supreme concern at 
Westminster. One of England's Prime Ministers alone has 
visited Dublin on two occasions, for one day or two. No one — 
King, Lords, or Commons — doubted that Ireland must take a sec- 
ond place and subserve the welfare of the ruling nation. 

" 'How will it afifect England?' was the invariable question of 
the English people, of their Parliament, of their Cabinet, and of 
the rulers sent to Dublin Castle. These officials, with their eyes 
fixed on the London Parliament and the shifting balance of votes 
there, could give little attention to the realities of Irish life. 

"As for the Crown, ever since English monarchs had assumed 
the title of "Kings of Great Britain and Ireland," they had in mind 
and act remained sovereigns of England, concerned about her spe- 
cial interests first and last, with Ireland as an outlying and alien 
dependency of ill repute. During six and a half centuries, five 
English monarchs crossed to Ireland on war and conquest expe- 
ditions. Two brief visits of state i)arade were made in the nine- 
teenth century. Three have reached as far as Dublin in the last 
eighteen years. No single occasion can be recalled when the 



16 The Irish Republic 

king in power considered it either a right or a duty as sovereign 
of Ireland, to mitigate the oppression of the Irish people, or to 
interfere for their protection against civil or religious tyranny; the 
royal influence was never tised even to discountenance social 
]»reiudice and contempt. In every conflict or calamity the sov- 
ereign was the defender of English superiority, and no Irish peti- 
tion could reach the throne. It was not only the English legis- 
lature hut the I^nglish monarchy which through all the centuries 
looked on the Irish with indifference, if not with marked hos- 
tility. The desperate effort of O'Connell to overcome a chilling 
disapproval by lavish faith and loyalty to the sovereign as ruler 
of Ireland is remembered by the Irish for its utter failure. 

"During the nineteenth century, moreover, when England fully 
developed her own form of national life, the Crown became of 
necessity the mere expression of the will of the Prime Minister 
of Great Britain. With the growth of the representative system, 
it was recognized that the sovereign's public conduct should be 
entirely controlled by the Head of the Cabinet. The evolution of 
this system of constitutional government, admirably suited to the 
English people who had succeeded in bringing the royal action 
into complete obedience to their will, had in Ireland a very dif- 
ferent result. It finally shut out from the Irish people all hope 
that their case, no matter what the urgency, could be submitted 
to the King of Ireland, save as a matter of party politics in Eng- 
land. All chance of his mediation with the English nation on be- 
half of his Irish subjects was completely barred out. In spite of 
the retention of the title, 'King of Ireland,' the king was king 
only as King of England, and reigned under the absolute direction 
of an English Premier. . 

"The relation of Ireland to the Crown in the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland is one of the unconsidered results 
of the Act of Union. England, intent on her own development 
as a single state, and encouraged by her statesmen and her writ- 
ers to regard her constitution as the most transcendent achieve- 
ment of human genius, failed to consider some natural effects of 
absorbing Ireland into her own system. What suited her, she 
confidently believed, must perforce suit any state so absorbed, and 
should result in profit. She rejected the warning of her imperial 
statesman Chatham, and, untroubled by imagination or foresight, 
went doggedly ahead. 

"As the power of the English Parliament advanced, and that 
of the Crown decayed, so much the heavier fell the weight of the 
English nation on Ireland. When the colonies with one accord 
refused to submit to the unnatural control of one nation by an- 




Arthur James Balfour 

ENEMY OF IRISH REPUBLIC "aND BRITISH DELEGATE TO PARIS 
PEACE CONFERENCE. 



The Irish Republic 17 

other, Ireland was left alone as a monument of the evils of such 
a form of government. 

"The government of Ireland by the Union Parliament had, in 
fact, all the faults of the old system. Instead of a United King- 
dom, one nation remained completely subordinate to the other. 
The Parliament of the ruling and capitalist classes had no vision 
of a well-peopled, strong and prosperous Ireland as a true security 
for the idea of an Imperial Confederation of free peoples. Still 
less had they any sense of obligation for the dignity, freedom, and 
wealth of the nation at their side. During that century, Ireland 
was governed by Coercion Acts, Crimes Acts, and Suspensions of 
the Habeas Corpus Act, such as no government ever ventured to 
enact for Great Britain after 1817. The results of such a concep- 
tion of the rule of a nation by a nation have been the depopula- 
tion and the grave economic jeopardy of Ireland. 

"But there has been another consequence— the profound de- 
termination of Irishmen to realize their own national life, and in 
self-government to find a rule more worthy of their ancient his- 
tory, and more adapted to their intellectual powers and their na- 
tional needs. The force of this national demand of today is greater 
than any that has yet been known in this country. 

"The experiment of government by the English nation, under 
its various forms, has been given a long and complete trial. From 
the first its results were inevitable. History shows universally that 
in government where, by the very necessity of the case, there is 
no appeal to reason possible, and no hope of change in the gov- 
erning mind, the aggrieved subject rapidly becomes an active mal- 
content, and resorts to violence as the only agency of reform. So 
it was in Ireland. No demand for remedy was heard across the 
water till it was enforced by leagues of desperate men driven to 
extremity and by outbreaks of popular fury. It was a dreary and 
gloomy road, but there was none other. We can all remember 
the hurricane of indignation that swept over England some dozen 
years ago at the saying of an Irish Under-Secretary that Ireland 
ought to be governed by English ideas. When Major Redmond died 
with such gallantry the other day, the English parties at West- 
minster vied with one another in his praise, but neither Tory nor 
Liberal whispered that each party of them in its turn had flung 
him into prison. 

"It is obvious that it is not the 'Irish Question' wdiich con- 
fronts us in Ireland. Our problem is 'the English Question.' It 
is that in one form or another which meets us at every turn, and. 
which has now, among other matters, raised fundamental prob- 
lems of government, even the discussion of Monarchy versus Re- 



18 The Irish Republic 

public. We cannot think it surprising, given the actual conditions, 
that there should be Irishmen who can see no way of adapting the 
present English constitutional system to the necessities of Ire- 
land ; even those who view with bitter enmity the appearance of a 
party agitating for a Republican State in Ireland must, in reason, 
admit that these reformers can only be understood and judged 
in relation to the history of the government of the Irish nation 
by the English nation, under a constitutional system devised by 
the English to suit their own national needs. It is no wonder that 
there are some to whom a Republic seems the only outlet. 

"It must be remembered that, when this question of Republic 
or Monarchy engages the mind of an Irishman, it arises not as an 
abstract academic comparison between the advantages of mon- 
archy and republic, but as the practical and pressing question of 
how to secure such self-government for his country as shall safe- 
guard her from the dangers that follow the domination of one 
nation over another. The lessons learned by the methods of cor- 
rupting and of closing the Irish Parliament which were employed 
by the ruling English Parliament and were pursued by the Act of 
Union, cannot be forgotten. Nor can the Irish be expected to 
center their hopes on any dream of a royal sympathy (the first 
time in seven hundred years), with the griefs of the Irish peoples ; 
for the way of access to the Crown has been finally barred, and 
the keeper of the gate is England's Prime Minister, always chang- 
ing, yet always the same. 

"The fact of Sinn Fein cannot be put aside by mere abuse of 
Republics and Republican conceptions ; nor can the difficulties 
which its actual being creates for British 'managing' politicians be 
surmounted by bribing a cohort of placemen to sing the National 
Anthem of England with lusty simulation of sincerity. Some 
deeper understanding of the realities of the Irish problem is now 
demanded, and a loftier intelligence to find the remedy of so great 
a need. Every fresh inquiry demonstrates the hazardous state of 
the country, where the economic conditions afiford no sound basis 
for the people's life, where a population by nature extremely ro- 
bust, is enfeebled beyond measure by poor living and disease, by 
a high death-rate, and a lamentable birth-rate, by late marriages, 
by emigration, by every evidence of insecure national existence. 
The Irish contribution to England, measured by taxable capacity, 
was reckoned in 1895 at one-sixteenth of what Great Britain can 
afford ; economists now estimate it at one-thirty-second. 

"On all sides. Irishmen see grave outward signs of the fail- 
ure of rule by one nation over another. To all the world the 
evidence is clear of a people haunted in their own land by sor- 




Andrew Bonar Law 
champion of ulster rebels and who rebelled himself into 
the cabinet and was one of england's delegates to the 
paris peace conference. 



The Irish Republic 19 

row, unrest, and indignation — a people who everywhere else prove 
active and contented citizens. The call of America to freedom is 
again heard after a hundred and fifty years, a call to the 'uni- 
versal dominion of right by a consent of free peoples,' to a 'world 
safe for democracy, its peace planted on the trusted foundation of 
political liberty,' to 'the rights of nations great and small, and the 
privileges of men everywhere to choose their way of life and 
obedience.' 

"In such a world, the rule of one democracy by another is un- 
thinkable. 

"If self-government is to be won for the Irish nation under a 
monarchy, there must be a new relation of the Crown and the 
Irish nation. If there is to be a Commonwealth of peoples, it 
must be everywhere based on that equality of rights from w'hich 
alone friendship and alliance can spring, and a conception of gov- 
ernment must arise which rejects all idea of the subjection of a 
nation to a nation." 



20 



CHAPTER IV 



A SIMPLE SYLLOGISM 



EAMONN DE VALERA at Bunker Hill was not an apparition. 
, It was a sequence. It was the completion of the syllogism be- 
gun in the Ulster rebellion of 1914 and laid down in the acts of 
conscription and deportation of 1918. It was Destiny, inexorable 
and just. 

Others were there though unseen. The O'Neills were there — 
the O'Neills of the red hair — and Brian of Clontarf, and Grattan 
and Emmet and Tone and Sarsfield, and O'Connell and Mitchel 
— and Padraic Pearse — and a great many others, come to meet 
other great spirits whose souls forever shall hover here, even as 
they died here. 

And when De Valera had come up to the obelisk he wrote on 
a small card, in this wise : 

"The liberties of my country are safe." 

George Washington spoke the words. They comprehended the 
vision conveyed in the report of the battle — how the leader of that 
little band, many of whom were of Irish descent, because of a 
shortage of powder, ordered them not to fire until they could see 
the whites of the Britishers' eyes ! 

Turning to the group that accompanied him to the Sacred 
Mound, the Ringsend Commandant of Easter Week said: 

"So far Ireland's history has been a Bunker Hill. For her 
friends that is a surety that Ireland's liberty, too, is safe. In her 
defeats there is victory. She, too, awaits her Yorktown. On be- 
half of the dead who died for Ireland and whose blood has made 
every rod of that land as sacred to Irishmen as is this soil sacred 
to America — as their representative and the trustee of the party 
for which they gladly gave their lives, I offer this tribute to 
America's gallant dead. I feel it will be sweet, not merely to 
their brave spirits, but to the spirits of the brave in every land who 
(Ijed battling for Liberty's holy cause." 




Lord Robert Cecil 
tory of tories and british delegate to the paris peace 

conference. 



21 



CHAPTER V 

THE FIRST "GERMAN PLOt" IN IRELAND 

IT is a reasonable postulate that had it not been for the Ulster 
rebellion of 1914 the world war might not have taken place. 
The assassination at Sarajevo was not ipso facto the casus belli. 
It was merely seized upon as the expedient; that is, Germany, at 
any rate, could have blocked the breaking out of hostilities by 
interposing an objection to the Hapsburg ultimatum to Serbia. 
Whether Germany took the lead in precipitating the war, Ger- 
many's is the responsibility for not having prevented it, and in 
all probability Germany would not have hastened into the con- 
flict had she been certain Great Britain would have come in im- 
mediately on the side of France and Russia. 

Mr. James W. Gerard, American Ambassador to Germany 
at the outbreak of the war, in his book, My Four Years in 
Germany, says : 

"The raising of the Ulster army by Sir Edward Carson, one 
of the most gigantic political bluffs in all history, which had no 
more revolutionary or political significance than a torchlight 
parade during one of our presidential campaigns, was reported by 
the German spies as a real and serious revolutionary movement, 
and, of course, it was believed, by the Germans that Ireland zvould 
rise in rebellion the moment that war was declared." 

Baron Beyens, Belgian Minister at Berlin, reviewing the sit- 
uation as it appeared to German officials, sent the following dis- 
patch from Berlin. July 26, 1914, nine days before the war broke 
out : 

"For the rest, England, which during the last two years Ger- 
many has been tr}^ing. not without success, to detach from France 
and Russia, is i)aralyzed by internal dissensions and her Irish 
quarrels." 

Doctor E. J. Dillon, telegraphing from Vienna on July 26, 
1914, the same day that Baron Beyens forwarded his dispatch, 
set forth the reasons why Austria expected a free hand in dealing 
with Serbia. One of the reasons was stated as follows : 

"It was a moment when the cares of the British government 
were absorbed in forecasting and preparing for the fatal conse- 
quences of its internal policy in regard to Irish Home Rule, which 
may, it is apprehended, culminate in civil war." 

Late in July, 1914, with Europe poised on the brink of the 
world war, and the danger apparent to all embassies in Europe, 



22 The Irish Republic 

Sir Edward Carson, at Belfast, reviewed the Ulster rebel army, 
which was equipped with the Mauser rifles secured in Germany 
a few months before, and which army was organized for the an- 
nounced purpose of precipitating both rebellion against Great 
Britain and civil war in Ireland to defeat Home Rule. 

"Among the forty reporters said to be gathered in Belfast," 
Mrs. J. R. Green has recorded in her Ourselves Alone in Ulster, 
"there were three or four Germans watching the proceedings, and 
Baron von Kuhlmann, of the German Embassy (soon to be ele- 
vated to the post of German Secretary for Foreign Afifairs in 
Berlin's War Cabinet), arrived quietly without information given 
to the press, as an honored guest to view the stirring scene, and 
the magnitude of the Protestant preparations for civil war. Ac- 
cording to the boast of the Covenanting government, the force 
raised to defy the government at Westminster was so furnished 
and drilled as to be ready at any moment to take the field. Eng- 
lish generals, and English pressmen, proclaimed aloud that the 
troops exceeded any army in training, appearance and equipment. 
Their defiant quality was shown the day after the conference at 
Buckingham Palace for the settlement of the Irish question had 
failed to agree and broken up, when on July 25th, the Provi- 
sional Government of Ulster organized a parade through Belfast 
of five thousand men in khaki, with bands, rifles and machine 
guns, all traffic in the streets being held up officially for the dis- 
play during the Saturday." 

This was ten days before the world war was declared. 

In the July, 1914, number of Das Leben Im B'lld (Life in 
Pictures), the well-known illustrated German paper, published 
subsecjuent to the Orange celebration of that same month, were 
printed two photographs, showing Ulster's preparation for civil 
war {Burgerkrie(j). Under one picture was this line, "Sir Ed- 
ward Carson verleiht einem FrekvUligen-Regiment Trommein und 
Fahnen" (Sir Edward Carson presents drums and colors to a 
volunteer regiment). Under another photograph, showing Ulster 
Volunteers manning a machine-gun battery, was this line : "Frei- 
willige-erersieren mit einem ai^f einem automobil hefestigten 
Maschinen-Gewechr." (Volunteers practice with a machine gun 
erected on an automobile). These photographs were taken by 
Kester and Company. They were circulated throughout Germany 
the week before the German Imperial government declared war. 

In this connection, two questions were put to the government 
in the House of Commons of the British Parliament, subsequent 
to the landing of the German rifles at Larne for use of the Ulster 
rebels. They were : 




Sir Edward Carson 
addressing the covenanter rebels at ballyclare. 



The Irish Republic 23 

"First. Whether under the auspices of the so-caUed Provi- 
sional Governrnent of Ulster, or its central authority, or any of 
its committees, in the year 1913, any Germans were employed in 
Ireland in the drilling or equipment of military forces, and 
whether, soon after the landing of arms from Germany at Larne 
(1914) out of the ship 'Fanny' from Bremen, Baron von Kuhl- 
mann of the German Embassy in London, and afterwards the 
Kaiser's Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was present at the celebra- 
tion in Belfast on the 12th of July, 1914, at a review and march 
of troops not in his majesty's service. 

"Second. How many German guns were landed at the time 
of the gun-running at Larne." 

The government, if it was in possession of the information, 
did not disclose the number of German guns sent to the Ulster 
rebels. A reputable resident of Belfast, however, a staunch 
Unionist, by the way, told the writer that they received in all some 
30,000 rifles from Germany. He also said that they had 
loaned many of them to the government to be used against the 
southern insurrectionists in the subsec]uent Easter-week uprising 
of 1916, and that the government had since (1918) returned the 
guns in better condition than wdien it received them. He moreover 
stated that the guns still were being held in readiness in the event 
of a revival of Home Rule legislation by Parliament. 

It should be stated, in justice to Sir Edward Carson, that he 
emphatically denied that he ever met Baron von Kuhlmann in 
Ulster. It should also be stated that Mr. Pratt, on behalf of 
the government, declared that "There is no evidence in support 
of any of the allegations contained in the question," referring to 
the inquiry in the House of Commons as to whether Baron von 
Kuhlmann had visited Ulster. 

Mrs. Green at Dublin, May 21, 1918, sent the following state- 
ment to the press : 

"The matter was much discussed in 1917, at a time when 
Northeast Ulster was naturally anxious to cover up the traces of 
its first enthusiasm for the Continental deliverer who was to revive 
the tradition of an older \\ illiam. On March 23, 1917, the North- 
ern Whig commented on Mr. Dillon's inquiries as to what brought 
the Baron to Ireland, and suggested if there is any substance in 
his 'hinted discovery,' 'the inevitable conclusion is that the rela- 
tions between the German Baron and the Nationalists wear a most 
suspicious look' and that 'it will be curious to learn whether Baron 
von Kuhlmann's mission was not connected with the Dublin 
Rebellion.' Sir John Lonsdale, in the same Northern li^hig, gave 
a flat denial to Mr. Dillon's assertion that the Baron was in Ulster 



24 The Irish Republic 

on the eve of the war. His information seems to have been de- 
fective, for he proceeds: 'We never heard of this Baron von 
Kuhhnann, and know nothing whatever about him.' On March 28, 
1917, however, the IVhig quoted from a Londoner's Diary, in the 
Evening Standard, along with the remark that 'only Irish extrem- 
ists would impute to men like Sir Edward Carson, Sir John Lons- 
dale, or Colonel Craig, any connection with Kuhlmann's visit,' 
the further statement that 'it is certain that Kuhlmann did go to 
Ulster, on a mission of investigation for the Kaiser, and naturally 
he came into contact with more or less prominent supporters of 
the Ulster cause. Kuhlmann's dispatch was used by Germany to 
help to persuade her allies that the time was opportune for war. 
. . . The story in all its details, of German intrigue in Ireland 
is, I believe, in the archives of Dublin, and will make interesting 
reading some day.' 

"A special article in the ihtHy Telegraph, quoted in the Free- 
man of August 8, 1917, on Baron von Kuhlmann's appointment as 
Foreign Secretary, stated that he visited Ireland to report on the 
situation there immediately before the outbreak of the war. Truth, 
quoted in the Freeman of August 9, 1917, says: 'The association 
of Herr von Kuhlmann with the Carson performances in Ulster 
was neither absurd nor far-fetched, as some journals assert. Kuhl- 
mann was in the North at the time, while the German ambassador, 
as announced in all the fashionable papers, was amongst the bril- 
liant circle of which Sir Edward Carson was the center — assem- 
bled in his honor by Lady Londonderry at Mountstewart, County 
Down. The presence of these distinguished officials in far-away 
Ireland on the special occasion of Sir Edward Carson's histrionic 
appearance in Ulster, could hardly have been fortuitous.' 

"The London correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Post. 
quoted in the Freeman of 9th of August, 1917, remarks: 'It has 
never been explained by Herr von Kuhlmann, or his admirers 
here, what precisely he was after during his friendly visit of in- 
quiry and examination in Belfast, during the summer of 1914.' 

"It was common knowledge in Ireland at the time, especially 
in the law library in Dublin, that Mr. Chambers, one of the 
Orange members for Belfast, afterwards solicitor-general for Ire- 
land, boasted of being in communication with the German Am- 
bassador as to the taking over of Ulster by the great Protestant 
power of Germany, to save Protestantism in Ireland from its be- 
trayal by England." 

On September 28, 1914, nearly two months after the war had 
started and the German armies had smashed Belgium and were 
on their way to Chateau Thierry (where they encountered the 




Sir Edward Carson 
drawn by a london artist. carson's law practice in london 
as a "corporation" lawyer yielded him an estimated 
annual income of $100,000. 



The Irish Republic 25 

Americans in July, 1918), Sir Edward Carson, speaking at Bel- 
fast said : "What I propose to do is in the future — may God 
grant it may be the near future — when the war is over, I propose 
to summon the Provisional Government together. And I propose, 
if necessary, so far as Ulster is concerned, that their first act will 
be to repeal the Home Rule bill as regards Ulster. And I propose 
in the same act to enact that it is the duty of the Volunteers to 
see that no act or no attempt at an act, under that bill, should 
have effect in Ulster. . . . We have plenty of guns and we are 
going to keep them. We are afraid of nothing." 

At Ballymena, three days later (October 1, 1914) Sir Edward 
Carson said: "Let them treat the Home Rule bill — he supposed 
he should call it the Home Rule Act — as a nullity, and go ahead 
as if it never existed, and let those who dared come and try to 
force it upon them," 

At Bolton, June 20, 1914, Sir Edward Carson said: "For my 
own part, the day I shall like best in the whole controversy is the 
day on which I am compelled, if I am compelled, to tell my men, 
'You must mobilize and you must defend yourselves.' " 

In the Spring of 1914, the Home Rule forces were drilling in 
the South and West, also preparing for civil war but in defense 
of Home Rule. When this was called to the attention of Sir Ed- 
ward Carson he said he had no criticism to offer of the mere act 
of the Republican forces in arming themselves, as he had laid 
down the precedent himself. His words were: "I am not 
sorry for the armed drilling of those who are opposed to me in 
Ireland. I certainly have no right to complain of it; I started 
that with my own friends. (Cheers.) I was told at the time 
that I was looking for revolution two and a half or three years 
ahead. I was very glad. I did not mind that. We are quite 
ready, and we mean to go on and be more ready." This state- 
ment was made at the Ladies' Grand Council of the Primrose 
League, St. James' Theatre, London, May 22, 1914. 

Again defying the English government to put Home Rule into 
effect in Ireland, Sir Edward Carson, as reported in the London 
Times of June 2, 1914, said: "Despite all their fleet and their 
other preparations, I am gong to have more Mausers !" 

All of these declarations were printed and were available 
for whomever desired to peruse them, including the German 
agents. 



26 



CHAPTER VI 

PURSUING THE ULSTER ANTHOLOGY 

RIGHT HONORABLE THOMAS ANDREWS, P. C, Hon- 
orable Secretary Ulster Unionist Council, was quoted in the 
Morning Post (London), January 9, 1911, as saying: "If we 
are deserted by Great Britain, I would rather be governed by Ger- 
many, than Patrick Ford and John Redmond and Company.' 

Captain Craig, M. P., on whose estate the famous Ulster rebel 
covenant was afterwards formally proclaimed, and marked with 
a headstone, is quoted in the Morning Post (London), January 
9, 1911, as saying: "There is a spirit spreading abroad, which I 
can testify to from my personal knowledge, that Germany and 
the German Emperor would be preferred to the rule of John Red- 
mond, Patrick Ford, and the Molly Maguires." ... At Der- 
raighy, October 7, 1911, he further declared that if Home Rule 
was granted, it would not matter a row of pins "whether they 
were separated from Great Britain or whether they were not." 

The late Lord Londonderry, one of the leaders in tne Ulster 
rebellion against Home Rule, speaking in the House of Lords, 
July 20, 1911, warned "their Lordships" that if a Home Rule 
parliament was set up in Ireland, by the government, there 
would be "lawlessness, serious disorder and bloodshed," and that 
if blood was shed, it would be the "fault of his majesty's gov- 
ernment." He said these were strong words — but he wanted to 
"warn the government of what would occur." He informed "his 
Lordships that before the LTlster Protestants would submit to rule 
by the majority in Ireland, "they would fight." 

Major F. Crawford (the Larne gun-runner), speaking at Ban- 
gor, April 29, 1912, said that if they were put out of the Union, 
meaning submission to Home Rule, he would "infinitely prefer to 
change his allegiance right over to the Emperor of Germany or 
anyone else who had got a proper and stable government." 

Colonel Wallace, at Lisbon, May 14, 1912, said he was not 
ashamed or afraid to say that he had taken a big i)art in the 
organizing of the drilling movement that was goin:^ on in many 
parts of the country. They had got to go on, he said, "until they 
saw that infernal Home Rule Bill put under their feet." When 
that was done, he added, then would be the time to fall out of the 
ranks, "but not until then. There was in that magnificent body of 
men (he had seen) the making of two battalions." 

Colonel T. E. Hickman, M. P., at South Wolverhampton, 



The Irish Republic 27 

October 25, 1912, said: "I can assure you from my personal 
knowledge that this is not a ([uestion at which to laugh at all. 
Those men in the North of Ireland are absolutely in earnest. I 
can assure you that, when the time comes, these men will be as 
good as their word. Personally, they have all my sympathies, and 
I tell you — and I say this very solemnly — that when the time 
comes, if there is any fighting to be done, I am going to be in it." 
Mr. Duke, K. C, M. P., who subsequently failed to "pacify" 
the Home Rulers while he was Chief Secretary of Ireland, speak- 
ing at Exeter, in October, 1912, said: "The men of Ulster have 
a moral right to resist, and the killing of men who so resist is 
not an act of oppression; it is an act of murder." 

Mr. Duke here laid down the principle zvhich, if 
applied literally to the Easter insurrection of I<^i6, 
would convict the English government and the Eng- 
lish troops of the murder of the men zvho were exe- 
cuted follozving that insurrection. The "moral right 
to resist" was the moral right that Mr. Duke and 
Ulster claimed for tliemselves to resist the law of 
the Imperial Parliament, or the British government 
itself, if that lazv ran counter to their ideas of self- 
government. That zcas the contention in the South 
and Jl'est for a hundred years; that they had the 
"moral right" to not only resist, but to attempt to 
eject the British goz'crnment from Ireland. 

Reverend Chancellor Hobson, at Kilmovarihy, Portadown, 
Easter Monday. 1913, said: "If Home Rule is passed, I would 
not care whether the British Em{)ire went to smash or not." 

The failure to put Home Rule into effect in 1Q14 
produced the same attitude on the part of leaders in 
the South and ITest, namely : "If self-government is 
not granted us, we zvould not care zvhether the Brit- 
ish Empire zvent to smash or not." 

In 1913 Ulster's opposition was to Home Rule; complete sep- 
aration had not yet swept through the island. That did not come 
until after the Easter insurrection, the conscription act and t!ie 
dei)ortation ; but, on May 23, 1913. Mr. James Chambers, K. C, 
M. P.. at South Belfast, said: "As regards the future, what if 
a day should come when Ireland would be clamoring for inde- 
pendence, complete and thorough, from Cireat Britain ; what side 



28 The Irish Republic 

would they take then? (A voice: 'Germany!')" He said he 
bound no man to his opinions, that they owed to England al- 
legiance, loyalty and gratitude; but if England cast them off, then 
he reserved the right as a betrayed man to say : 'I shall act as I 
have a right to act; I shall sing no longer: "'God Save the 
King.' " He said that the day England cast him off and "de- 
spised his loyalty and allegiance," that day he would say : "Eng- 
land, I wdll laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear 
Cometh." 

That was the philosophy of Easter week, ipi6 — 
laughing at England's calamity and mocking at her 
fears. The Easter insurrectionists zvere imbued ivith 
the apothegm enunciated by all the great rebels in 
Ireland's history, particularly since the Act of 
Union that "England's difficulty is Ireland's oppor- 
tunity." 

Alfred Lyttleton, K. C, M. P., speaking at Cork on May 31, 
1913, in oi)position to Home Rule, declared it would be a "tre- 
mendous blow against the very foundations of society, to compel 
the military forces of the Crown into such a position that there 
was grave doubt as to whether the officers and men would obey 
the orders given to them in the event of civil war taking place." 
It was his opinion, so expressed at the time, that there were 
"many officers and many men who would decline to lift a hand 
against those he believed were fighting a righteous cause." 

Lord Charles Beresford, in the House of Commons, June 10, 
1913, said: "I say and honestly think that it is deplorable that 
a man who has worked the whole of his life in the British service, 
who has been loyal to the Union Jack, should have to stand up 
in the House of Commons, and say that he is prepared, knowing 
his responsibility, to go and be one of the first to be shot down, 
if troops are sent to Ireland. That is not swagger. That is what 
I intend to do if you send troops to Ireland." 

Was not that the mental attitude of the Easter 
insurrectionistsf Were they not willing to be shot 
down, when England sent troops to Dublin to en- 
force on them a government they did not desire f 

In July, 1913. the Coleraine Constitution printed an open let- 
ter to Mr. Asquith, in which appeared this sentiment : "Can King 
George sign the Home Rule bill? Let him do so, and his Empire 



The Irish Republic 29 

shall perish as true as God rules Heaven. Therefore, let King 
George sign the Home Rule bill ; he is no longer my king !" 

The Southern Irish admitted at no time that 
King George was their king. 

Mr. F. H. Campbell, K. C, M. P., in the House of Commons, 
July 7, 1913, said: "You may call these men bigots; you may 
call them fanatics, sullen, if you will, but they have counted the 
cost ; they have made up their minds, and they will be faithful 
to the death." 

This was said of the Ulster rebels, who were op- 
posing Home Rule. Wherein does this differ, in 
spirit at least, from the pronouncement of taster 
Week, ipi6f 

Major Ricardo, at Stone House, Glos., August 11, 1913, was 
quoted as saying that a near relative of his was in command of 
30,000 volunteers (Ulster), "pledged to fight against Home Rule 
in Armagh." 

The Belfast Earning TelegrapJi, August 27, 1913: "Sir Ed- 
ward Carson had the honor in receiving an invitation to lunch 
with the Kaiser last week at Hamburg." 

Lord Arlington, at Parkstone, September 14, 1913, said: "If 
there is any blood spilt in Ireland, through the government trying 
to force Home Rule upon Ulster, the ])eople of this country (Eng- 
land) will be so enraged that they will require some blood of the 
members of the Cabinet, to make up for the loss of blood in Ire- 
land. If an Irishman is killed, he can hardly be spared, but if 
it was a couple of Cabinet ministers, we should say, 'good rid- 
dance !' " 

Sir Edward Carson at Antrim, September 20, 1913, told his 
Orange associates that they "had pledges and promises from some 
of the greatest generals in the army that, when the time comes, 
and if it is necessary, they will come over to help keep the old 
flag flying, and to fight those who would dare invade our liberty." 

Four days later, September 4, 1913, the Unionist Council for- 
mally decreed itself to be the Central Authority of the Provisional 
Government and its Standing Committee, in defiance of England, 
and appointed Sir Edward Carson the head of the central author- 
ity, or President of the Provisional Government. 

November 24, 1913, Colonel T. E. Hickman, M. P., at Wolver- 
hampton, said : "You may be quite certain that these men are not 



30 The Irish Republic 

going to fight with dummy muskets. They are going to use mod- 
ern rifles and ammunition, and they are being taught to shoot. I 
know, because I buy the rifles myself. I won't tell you where I get 
them from, but you can take it from me that they are the best, and 
if the men will only hold them straight, there won't be many Na- 
tionalists (Home Rulers) to stand up against them." 

L.ord Willoughby de Broke, at Norwich, November 13, 1913, 
said : "We are enlisting, and enrolling an army of considerable 
force of volunteers, who are going to proceed to Ulster, to rein- 
force the ranks of Captain Craig and his brave men when the 
proper time comes." 

Mr. Preytman Newman, M. P., at Potters' Bar, De- 
cember 5, 1913, said that if Mr. Asquith (the Prime Minister) 
did employ the British army, he would break the back of 
the army, and if by any chance he should bring bloodshed in Ulster 
by means of imperial troops (supi)orting Home Rule) then, in 
his mind, any man would be justified "in shooting Mr. Asquith in 
the streets of London." 

Mr. Joynson Hicks, M. P., at Warrington, December 6, 1913, 
defied the Minister to use the British army to enforce Home Rule 
in Ireland. The people of Ulster, he said, had behind them the 
Unionist army, and behind them was the "Lord God of Battles," 
and in His name he said to the Prime Minister, "Let your armies 
and batteries fire. Fire if you dare. Fire and be damned !" 

Mr.. A. M. Samuel, at Old Trafiford, January 15, 1914, said: 
"When the first shot of civil war was fired in Ulster, as sure as 
they stood there, one of the cabinet ministers would be hanged in 
Downing street." 

The Fall Mall Gazette, January 16, 1914: "The first shot 
fired, the first act of coercion peri)etrated on Ulster annihilates 
constitutional government in the United Kingdom, and sets free 
every citizen to uphold his convictions with what force he may." 

Sir James Campbell, M. P., at Swansea, March 13, 1913, said: 
"Civil war was the path of danger, but it was also the path of 
duty," and he was convinced that "no other alternative was left 
to the Loyalists of Ulster." 

What other alternative zvas left to the Home 
Rulers in Dublin in Easter Week, ipidf" 

wSir A. Paget, commanding the English forces in Ireland, wired 
the War Office in London, under date of March 20, 1914, as fol- 
lows: "Regret to report Brigadier-General Gough and fifty-seven 
officers, third cavalry brigade, [)refer to accept dismissal if ordered 



The Irish Republic 31 

North." The proceeding to the North would have been for the 
purpose of enforcing the Enghsh Parliament's Home Rule law. 

Brigadier-General Gough. in an interview printed in the Lon- 
don Daily Telegraph, March 25, 1914, was quoted as saying: "I 
got a signed guarantee that, in no circumstances, shall we be 
used to force Home Rule on the Ulster people. If it came to 
civil war, I would fight for Ulster rather than against her." 

On April 24, 1914, coincident with a mobilization of the Ulster 
volunteers, the 30,000 German Mauser rifles were landed at Larne, 
County Antrim, and at Bangor, and Donaghadee, County Down. 

July 26, 191 4. Arms landed for the National Vol- 
unteers to defend Home Rule at Howth. Police and 
soldiers attempt to disarm the National J^olunteers. 
The soldiers fire on the people at Bachelor's Walk, 
killiyuj three and woundimi thirty-two. 

The London Daily Mail, April 2H, 1914, [)rinted the follow- 
ing: "An interesting detail of Friday night's arrangement linked 
up the occasion with the events at the Curragh (Gough's mutiny), 
which caused so much excitement five weeks ago. The password 
chosen was 'Gough !' " 

Lord Willoughby de Broke at Stratford-on-Avon, May 24, 
1914, said it was quite enough for those who desired to support 
the Ulstermen and at the same time to protect the Union, to know 
that the "net result of the whole afi^air had been that the British 
officers and men were not on that occasion available, or ever 
would be available, to act as the hired assassins of a radical 
caucus." 

The Ulster covenant proclaimed and signed on September 
28, 1912, was as follows: "Being convinced in our consciences 
that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being 
of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our 
civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and 
perilous to the unity of the Empire, we, whose names are under- 
written, men of Ulster, loyal subjects of his gracious majesty, 
King George the Fifth, humbly relying on the God to wdiom our 
fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, hereby 
pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant in this our time of threatened 
calamity to stand by one another in defending, for ourselves and 
our children, our cherished position of equal citizenship in the 
United Kingdom, in using all means which may be found neces- 
sary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Par- 
liament in Ireland; and in the event of such a Parliament being 



32 The Irish Republic 

forced upon us, we further solemnly and mutually pledgee our- 
selves to refuse to recognize its authority. In sure confidence that 
God will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names, and 
further, we individually declare that we have not already signed 
this Covenant." 

One of the "first steps" in the forming of the Ulster Provi- 
sional Government to oppose Home Rule by force, by armed re- 
bellion, was a conference of Unionist Clubs and Orange Lodges 
in Belfast, on September 25, 1911, at which the following resolu- 
tions were passed : 

"That we, delegates of the Ulster Unionist Associations, the 
Unionist Clubs of Ireland, and the Loyal Orange Institution of 
Ireland, in united meeting assembled, recognizing that the pub- 
lic peace of this country is in great and imminent danger by rea- 
son of the threat to establish a parliament in Dublin, and knowing 
that such a step will inevitably lead to disaster to the Empire and 
absolute ruin to Ireland, the degradation of our citizenship in the 
United Kingdom, and the destruction of our material prosperity 
and our civil and religious liberties, hereby call upon our leaders 
to take any steps they may consider necessary to resist the estab- 
lishment of Home Rule in Ireland, solemnly pledging ourselves 
that under no conditions shall we acknowledge any such govern- 
ment nor obey its decrees, and we further assure our leaders that 
those whom we represent will stand by them loyally in any action 
they may take, and give their unwavering support in any danger 
they may be called upon to face. 

"That inasmuch as his majesty's government has intimated 
its intention to pass a measure of Home Rule for Ireland, and as 
we have again and again expressed our intention not to submit to 
Home Rule, the time has now come when we consider it our im- 
perative duty to make arrangements for a Provisional Government 
for Ulster: 

"It is resolved that we hereby appoint a Commission, whose 
duties shall be : 

"1. To keep Sir Edward Carson in constant touch with the 
feeling of Unionist Ulster as represented by its various loyal or- 
ganizations. 

"2. And in the case of emergency, with his approval, to take 
immediate action. 

"3. To take immediate steps in consultation with Sir Edward 
Carson to frame and submit a constitution for a Provisional Gov- 
ernment for Ulster, having due regard to the interests of the loyal- 
ists in other parts of Ireland, the powers and duration of such 
Provisional Government to come into operation on the day of the 



I 



The Irish Republic 33 

passage of any Home Rule Bill, to remain in force until Ulster 
shall again resume unimpaired her citizenship in the United King- 
dom, and her high position in the great British Empire." 
Says Mrs. Green, the historian of the Ulster rebellion : 
"To complete the attributes of a self-contained state, an army 
was needed. Unionist Clubs had long been formed throughout 
the country, whose members were easily ranged into corps of 
volunteer soldiers. They were said to number 60,000 when re- 
viewed by the new Ulster Provisional Government. It was now 
held necessary to replace volunteers with wooden rifles and can- 
non by troops armed for active service with modern weapons. The 
creation of such an army was certainly illegal. But mere il- 
legality was not an obstacle to stop the march of Ulster. In 
June, 1913, a large consignment of arms was imported to Belfast 
as 'electrical plant.' Sir Edward Carson already anticipated 'Der 
Tag.' T like,' said he on August 3, 1913, 'to get nearer the 
enemy. I like to see the men who are preparing for what I call 
the Great Day.' A volunteer force, numbering according to re- 
port, 100,000 or presently 200,000 men, was equipped by the 
Ulster Provisional Cjovernment on a very sumptuous scale, with 
khaki uniforms, military boots, motorcycles, rifles, machine-guns, 
and all other necessaries. A couple of Germans assisted in their 
training. An indemnity fund of a million pounds ($5,000,000) 
was announced, to indemnify volunteers for loss of life and prop- 
erty. Ambulances and nurses were provided. Sir Edward Carson 
stated that, to his personal knowledge, 'the forces of the Crown 
were already dividing into hostile camps.' Imperialist and Union- 
ist Ulster set no limits to its defiance of the Imperial Govern- 
ment, encouraged by their English friends. Sir Edward Carson's 
lieutenant, the 'Galloj)er' E. E. Smith, speaking in County Antrim 
on November 21, said, if war began in Ulster, 'from that moment, 
we hold ourselves absolved from all allegiance to this government. 
From that moment on, we on our part will say to our fellows in 
England : "To your tents, O Israel." Erom that moment we 
shall stand side by side with you refusing to recognize any law.' 
"In defense of Protestant Unionism, Sir Edward Carson de- 
clared himself ready to break all laws. He professed scorn and 
defiance of anything done 'down in a little place called West- 
minister.' His insolences were studied : 'I saw,' he declared in 
the Ulster Hall, 'Mr. Lloyd George in his robes as Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, and I almost mistook him for a gentleman.' Car- 
son's followers blatantly announced their preference for a Protes- 
tant German ruler, who would revive the glorious and immortal 
memory of an older William. Mr. Chambers, Solicitor-General 



34 The Irish Republic 

for Ireland, gave it to be understood that he was in negotiation 
with the German ChanceHor for the transfer of Ulster if neces- 
sary, owing to its resolve to be attached to a strictly Protestant 
power. When he proclaimed in the High Street of his constitu- 
ency in Belfast, that, if English George signed the bill, he was for 
the German William, the vaunt was repeated on all sides. 

"In fact, the government of the half -province justified the 
boast that it was ready to l)reak all laws of the United Kingdom. 
A royal proclamation had in December, 1913, forbidden the im- 
porting of arms. Sir Edward Carson admitted no such control. 
The departure of the Fanny from Hamburg in 1914, laden with 
arms for the new army, was announced in the papers three weeks 
before its arrival at Larne in April, 1914. All the volunteers 
were called out. They guarded Belfast, where a decoy-boat was 
sent in to mislead the police. They surrounded Larne and Ban- 
gor, and shut them out from 'the enemy.' At the famous gun- 
running into the Irish harbour, the Provisional Government took 
possession of the King's high-roads, ran telegraph wires to 
earth, confined the police to barracks, seized harbours, locked up 
officials of the customs, rounded up suspected Nationalists, and 
locked them in a barn, and generally broke the public laws of sea 
and land. Admirals, generals, officials of the coast-guard, of 
police, of the post-office and telegraph service, all connived at the 
lawless deeds. Public law was suspended. Evidently at Larne 
the Provisional Government not merely claimed but exercised the 
right to rebel. 

"England was startled. Her Prime Minister in Parliament 
formally denounced the whole proceeding at Larne as 'an un- 
paralleled outrage.' The answer of the Northeast Ulster govern- 
ment to English tremors was unhesitating. Captain Craig, M. P., 
on July 9, 1914, read for the first time openly the preamble to the 
Constitution of the Ulster Provisional Government. The people, 
it stated, of the counties and places represented in the Ulster 
Unionist Council undertook to resist to the utmost any powers to 
be exercised over them by a Nationalist Government, and re- 
solved if Home Rule was set up to ignore the Irish Parliament, 
and to assume and exercise all powers necessary for the govern- 
ment of Ulster, pending the restoration of direct Imperial gov- 
ernment. Fresh military preparations were made for the army, 
now said to have reached 200,000 men. Machine guns were 
landed, and rest stations arranged for refugees flying from the 
threatened civil war. The next day, 70,000 men marched from 
Belfast to Drumbeg. where Sir Edward Carson declared Ulster's 
determination to resist by force. The Prime Minister and his 



The Irish Republic 35 

shocked House of Commons were again flouted in the Belfast 
celebration of the glorious Twelfth of July. At that great fes- 
tival, the black pirate flag, with skull and cross-bones, was 
hoisted on the gate of the chief gun-runner, and as the proces- 
sion passed in its multitudinous glory, Sir Edward Carson, called 
on to salute the lawless emblem, rose in his carriage laden with 
orange lilies and more than once bowed low, to tumultuous cheers, 
amid flags and the 'open Bibles' of wood borne aloft by the 
Orange lodges in testimony to their rigid creed. In this triumph- 
ant display, the name of the pirate hero of the Fanny and Larne 
gun-runner was first given to the public (Major Crawford). 

"Sensational public shows, on however costly a scale of Euro- 
pean advertisement, were but the decorative ornaments of meth- 
odical and hard cut business. The English War Office, moved by 
some natural fears that the new 'army' might l)e tempted in the 
interests of E'lster to appropriate some of the military stores col- 
lected in certain mobilization centers, had, before these events, 
proposed to send military guards to protect their own material, 
and had thought it prudent to appoint General Sir Neville Mac- 
Cready to Belfast as military governor in reserve, in case the mag- 
istrates refused to perform their duty. He was received with 
shouts of 'Butcher MacCready.' Cries of agonized terror re- 
sounded, 'The English government has planned a "pogrom!"' 
'There was to be a massacre of Protestants!' The country was 
blazing with excitement when the Provisional Government sprang 
to the rescue. It possessd unexploited resources in certain lofty 
connections and the wide-spread influences of Orange propaganda 
in high circles were available to organize a secret conspiracy 
throughout the British Army and Navy, and even the Air Eorce, 
that they should stand on the side of Northeast Ulster in all 
eventualities, and refuse to act against her. To their temporary 
annoyance the plot was accidentally revealed early in 1914 by the 
notorious 'Curragh mutiny,' when the illegal complicity of gen- 
erals and officers became known, whose military discipline had 
been degraded at the bidding of faction cries, and whose larger 
outlook had been eclipsed by the glamour of old ascendencies. The 
Prime Minister took charge of the War Office. But the discom- 
fiture of the Provisional Government was only momentary. The 
Prime Minister returned to his usual position. Before the scien- 
tific organization and the warlike threats of the Unionist Council, 
the government of the United Kingdom, over-awed and intimi- 
dated, succumbed and laid down all opposition. 

"The outbreak of the war opened the second scene in the 
drama of the Provisional Government. The Council of the half- 



36 The Irish Republic 

province, professing an undying loyalty to the Imperial Govern- 
ment which it had vanquished, became the Mayor of the Palace 
to the defeated powers of Westminster. It consented to fill the 
chief places of the Law, and to guide the Imperial Cabinet ac- 
cording to the Ulster formulae. Sir Edward Carson and Mr. 
F. E. Smith undertook as Attorney and Solicitor-General to deal 
in England with any rebellious-minded persons less successful 
than themselves; and Mr. Campbell and Mr. William Moore were 
in due time made Lord Chief Justice and Judge of the High Court 
in Ireland. The higher policy was thus proclaimed identical with 
the higher law, to the confusion of all objectors. In course of 
aifairs, Sir Edward Carson passed to the War Cabinet, the Ad- 
miralty, and finally to the political propaganda, by which foreign 
nations were instructed as to what was or was not laudable 're- 
bellion' in Ireland. 

"All this implied no change in Sir Edward Carson's views, as 
Northeast Ulster might see when on a visit to Ireland as Min- 
ister of the Crown, he gracefully accepted the gift of a silver 
model of the Fanny. Meanwhile, in Belfast itself, the Ulster 
Provisional Government was maintamed in full force, and the 
second stage of the Northeast movement was not less efficiently 
directed than the first. The Orange and Unionist Press main- 
tained their policy of threats. The Northern Whig, on August 
24, reminded 'three-fourths of the people of Ulster (an amazing 
calculation), that, if the Home Rule bill became an act, they 
'must either become traitors to the Covenant which they have sol- 
emnly signed or rebels to the Crown.' On the next day, the Bel- 
fast Ez'ening Telegraph commented on the suggestion to put the 
Home Rule bill upon the statute book with a time reservation : 'To 
do that w'ould create a serious position. It would drive Ulster 
Loyalists into this posit'ion, that much as they desire to assist 
Britain's armed forces abroad at this juncture, and much as their 
help in that direction is needed, they would be compelled, through 
the government's action, to remain here for the defense of their 
hearths and homes against an enemy no less deadly and embit- 
tered.' [So thought Sinn Fein 1918.] 

"The Unionist Council meanwhile undertook no recruiting for 
the war. There was a good deal of local effort, on natural and 
liberal lines, where Protestants and Catholics enlisted together, 
and sent out men to fight and die at Suvla Bay — all this quite apart 
from any effort of Sir Edward Carson. Recruiting was, in fact, 
officially frowned on until the leader had given the word. A let- 
ter written by Captain Arthur O'Neill from the front, urging men 
to enlist, was refused by a Unionist paper, because Sir Edward 



The Irish Republic 37 

Carson had made no pronouncement. In Tyrone, one who was 
urgent in calling for recruits was accused of 'spoiling the game' 
before the leader had spoken. 

"Covenanters declared that, if the Home Rule bill zvas signed, 
there would not be a single man sent from Ulster to the war. 

"Strange scenes of excitement were reported. When the act 
was finally passed, Ulster, demanding the partition of Ireland, 
showed its power by exacting a pledge that the act should not be 
put in force till it had been amended in this sense, as it was under- 
stood ; and by securing later that it should not become law during 
the war, in other words, till their army had returned. 

"Sir Edward Carson did not appear in Ulster till September, 
after the battle of the Marne. He then announced the bargain he 
had completed with the English government, before authorizing 
the use of Ulster troops by the War Office. Larne, the scene of 
their late triumph in gun-running, was chosen for the speech in 
which he stated his terms, and made it clear that there would be 
no change in the policy of the half province, or of its government. 
His first pledge to volunteers who joined the British army prom- 
ised their recognition as a separate entity : 'Lord Kitchener has 
consented to form a division of 12,000, maintained as a separate 
and complete unit, without being attached to any other division.' 
The second pledge was an assurance that the policy of the Ulster 
Provisional Government and the Covenant would suffer no slight- 
est injury : 

" 'I (Carson) promise you that I will reorganize the volunteers, 
and that when you come back you will not find Home Rule in 
Ulster.' By these emphatic pledges the policy was confirmed of 
ourselves first, ourselves last, ourselves all the time. 

"The War Office kept to its pledge of a separate unit. The 
Ulster Volunteer Force were allowed, contrary to former rules, to 
retain their special cap, badges and flags worked for their use. 
But the essential bond of union lay in the signing of the Covenant, 
which was enforced on every member who joined the new divi- 
sion. In compelling the War Office to admit a separate and com- 
plete unit bound by a special political oath- — a course unfamiliar 
to modern armies since Cromwell's time — Sir Edward Carson had 
won a notable victory for the Provisional Government of North- 
east Ulster. The trium[)h over the unity of the king's Imperial 
forces had indeed its natural eft'ect on discipline, as may be illus- 
trated by the Inniskillings. whose battalions, like the Irish Rifles, 
are divided between the Ulster Division and the Irish Division in 
the army. It was the Covenanting Inniskillings, under the protec- 
tion of the Provisional Government, who felt at liberty to riot 



38 The Irish Republic 

through Enniskillen, tramphng under foot and insuhing Irish 
emblems. Meanwhile, in Ulster, no time was lost in affirming Sir 
Edward Carson's second pledge as to the security of the volun- 
teers and of the Covenanters. 

"Discipline was enforced with a stern hand. Even Mr. F. E. 
Smith, 'the Galloper,' was sternly rebuked by the Northern Whig 
for a temporary lapse, in his imperial enthusiasm, from the pure 
doctrine of the 'natural leaders' of Ulster arrayed against 'the 
spread of Revolutionary doctrine and free thought.' He was ac- 
cused of attempting to recruit for the British army without 
strict adherence to the tactics of Sir Edward Carson, by address- 
ing a recruiting meeting at Liverpool along with leading radicals. 
His intention was condemned by 'the opinion of leading Unionists 
as to the impropriety of his conduct,' and his apology was re- 
jected. 'We hope he will reconsider his decision, and that no other 
leading Unionists will be found on the platforms with radicals.' 

"Sir Edward Carson for his part refused to stand with Mr. 
Redmond at a recruiting meeting in Newry. 

"All necessary steps were taken to reinforce the militant Cov- 
enanters. Unionists over military age, or not inclined to join the 
army, were encouraged to take on Ulster Volunteer Force uni- 
form and equipment, and fill up the ranks. While it was under- 
stood that the outgoing troops would on their return be used to 
enforce all the demands of the Covenanters — the more efficiently, 
as Sir Edward Carson explained from actual experience and disci- 
pline in war — the home army was kept in being with its arms, am- 
munition and ecjuipment. 

"The able head of the cycle corps was retained in Belfast in 
a good position at a time when advertisements were posted for 
weeks at all the cinemas in Dublin and elsewhere calling for mo- 
torcyclists for the Ulster Division. 

"When the war office was in distress for supplies, if the Cov- 
enanters released to it some of their vast stores of khaki uniforms, 
etc., it was at prices which were no disadvantage to themselves. 
By the aid of a submissive Cabinet at Westminster all who had 
connived at the Larne 'outrage' from generals downward were 
given military promotion. 

"As the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian pointed out 
on January 17, 1917, the Larne gun-running won as many titles, 
honours, and offices for its organizers and patrons, as if it had 
been an incident in the first battle of Ypres. The major who had 
brought the Fanny into harbour was raised to the rank of 
Colonel, retained as the center of action in Belfast, and made 
head of the Commissariat. In recognition of the 'unparalleled out- 



The Irish Republic 39 

ragf"' not only the military but all other consenting officials were 
well provided for; not one was left derelict. 

"There was thus in the numerous and lucrative administra- 
tive posts at home an organization ready for future emergencies. 
The Protestant Primate illustrated the unity of the Ulster Vol- 
unteer Force at home and abroad, which he said could not be bet- 
ter described than in the words of Holy Writ : 'There were some 
that went forth to the battle, and others that tarried with the 
stufif.' 

"The troops who remained at home were carefully linked with 
their comrades who had joined the army. Practically all the vol- 
unteer officers had immediately obtained army commissions, with- 
out further question, as their indubitable right. The roll oi 
honour gave not only the soldier's place in the British army, but 
his rank in the Ulster Volunteers. The volunteers at home were 
as before commended to the good offices of the British army of 
the old intrigue. Their friends of the Curragh Mutiny were not 
forgotten, and in view of future emergencies, special Christmas 
boxes of cigarettes, with encouraging mottoes and remembrances 
were sent from Belfast to the officers and privates concerned. 

"A leading Liberal paper in England refused to allow any in- 
formation of this incident, lest it should be accused of breaking 
the 'truce' which had been proclaimed — a truce which the Cov- 
enanters were so cheerfully defying. In Belfast, however, the 
event was widely advertised ; and thus, by silence abroad, and ad- 
vertisement at home, Belfast enjoyed its well-organized double 
triumph. 

"There was no lack meanwhile of sermons to glorify the un- 
changing fixity of the Provisional Government and the Covenant. 
The ladies of the movement were also useful in upholding the doc- 
trine of ourselves first and last and all the time. In the Hos- 
pital War Supplies, and in the supply of comforts for prisoners 
of war, their object was to draw Ulster into a separate organiza- 
tion for the work of mercy from the rest of Ireland." 



40 



CHAPTER VII 



MORE OF THE DRAGON S TEETH 



When the Irish self-government forces, Protestant and Cath- 
olic, seemed about to secure Home Rule, the Irish Churchman, 
speaking for the pro-royalist Protestants of Ulster, on November 
14, 1913, printed the following: 

"It may not be known to the rank and file of 
Unionists that we have the offer of aid from a pow- 
erful continental inonarch (the Kaiser), who, if 
Home Rule is forced on the Protestants of Ireland, 
is prepared to send an army sufficient to release Eng- 
land of any further trouble in Ireland by attaching it 
to his (the Kaiser's) dominion, believing, as he does, 
that if our King breaks his coronation oath by sign- 
ing the Home Rule Bill, he will, by so doing, have 
forfeited his claim to rule Ireland, and should our 
King sign the Home Rule Bill, the Protestants of 
Ireland will welcome this continental deliverer (Em- 
peror William of Germany), as their forefathers, 
under similar circumstances, did once before." 



MR. BONAR LAW, who afterwards became a high member 
of the British War Cabinet, and was finally rewarded by 
being named one of the British delegates to the Peace Conference 
at Paris, speaking at Larne, April 9, 1912, said: "I have only one 
word more to say, and that is, that if this Home Rule Bill should 
by any chance be forced through, then God help Ulster, but 
Heaven help the government that tries to enforce it." 

Speaking in the House of Commons, June 18, 1912, Mr. Law 
said : "They know that, if Ulster is in earnest, that if Ulster does 
resist by force, there are stronger influences than Parliament ma- 
jorities. They know that, in that case, no government would dare 
to use its troops to drive them out. They know, as a matter of 
fact, that the government, which gave the order to employ troops 
for that purpose, would run a great risk of being lynched in 
London." 

At Blenheim, July 27, 1912, Mr. Law said: "If the attempt 
be made, under present conditions, I can imagine no length of 
resistance to which Ulster will go which I shall not be ready to 



The Irish Republic 41 

support, and in which they will not be supported by the over- 
whelming majority of the British people. . . . We regard the 
government as a revolutionary committee, which has seized by 
fraud upon desi)otic power. In our opposition to them we shall 
not be guided by the consideration, we shall not be restrained by 
the bonds which would influence us in an ordinary political strug- 
gle. We shall use any means — whatever means seem to us likely 
to be the most effective. This is all we shall think about. We 
shall use any means to deprive them of the power which they 
have usurped, and to compel them to face the people they have 
deceived." 

Speaking in the House of Commons, January 1, 1913, Mr. Law 
said: "If you attempt to enforce this bill, and the people of 
Ulster believe, and have the right to believe, that you are doing it 
against the will of the people of this country, then I shall assist 
them in resisting it. . . . It is a fact which I do not think 
anyone who knows anything about Ireland will deny, that these 
people in the Northeast of Ireland, from old prejudices perhaps, 
more than from anything else, from the whole of their past his- 
tory, would prefer, I believe, to accept the government of a for- 
eign country rather than submit to be governed by honorable gen- 
tlemen below the gangway." 

Sir Frederick E. Smith, who afterwards became Attorney 
General in the British cabinet, was sent to the United States after 
the United States entered the war, as a propagandist to bring the 
American people and the English people closer together. He was 
quickly "chased" back home, or recalled by his government, when 
a wave of bitter antagonism spread across the United States. 

Sir Frederick, then "Mr.," F. E. Smith, K. C. M. P., speaking 
at Liverpool, July 19, 1910, said: "Remember the glorious days 
of King William! Never shall we forget the imperishable mem- 
ories of the Battle of the Boyne ! No matter what the rest of the 
country shall say, we in Liverpool shall fight under the Protestant 
watchwords, 'no surrender, no compromise' !" 

Speaking at Liverpool, January 22, 1912, Mr. Smith said 
Ulster, in refusing to submit to nationalist domination under a 
trick, would be right in resisting, and he for one, speaking with a 
full sense of responsibility, went further and said "there was no 
length to which LTlster would not be entitled to go, however des- 
perate or unconditional, in carrying the quarrel, if the quarrel was 
wickedly fixed upon them." 

Speaking at Nottingham, April 18, 1912, Mr. Smith said: 
"Speaking with a due sense of responsibility, and with the knowl- 
edge that what I say is shared by my Unionist colleagues, in the 



42 The Irish Republic 

resolution and unshakable determination of Ulster not to submit., 
they will have the full support not only of the Unionists of Ire- 
land, but of the whole of the Unionist members of the House of 
Commons, in all risks, at all hazards, and in every extremity." 

Speaking at Blenheim, July 27, 1912, in company with Mr. 
Law, Mr. Smith said : "I can only tell Sir Edward Carson this, 
and I speak with all sense of responsibility, should it happen that 
Ulster is threatened with a violent attempt to incorporate her in 
an Irish Parliament, with no appeal to the English electors, I say 
to Sir Edward Carson, appeal to the young men of Ireland." 

Speaking at Portadown, the Protestant stronghold of North- 
east Ulster, September 25, 1912, Mr. Smith said: "I place on 
record my view that this government, if it had the wickedness — 
which I have difficulty in believing — is wholly lacking in the 
nerve to give an order to the British Army to use coercion in 
Ulster. Supposing the government gave such an order, the con- 
sequences can only be described in the words of Mr. Bonar Law, 
when he said, 'if they did so, it would not be a matter of argu- 
ment, but the population of London would lynch you on the 
lampposts.' " 

Lord Robert Cecil, who afterwards became Minister of 
Blockade in the British War Cabinet, and was named a British 
delegate to the Paris Peace Conference after the war, speaking at 
Baldock, February 9, 1912, said: "If Home Rule were persisted 
in, it would lead to civil war," and if he lived in Belfast, he would 
seriously consider whether rebellion were not better than Home 
Rule. 

Mr. Walter Long, M. P., who afterwards was taken into the 
English Cabinet, speaking at Whitechapel, December 6, 1910, 
said: "If the Liberals try to force Home Rule on Ireland, there 
was a large section of the community — a minority, no doubt, but 
large, powerful, determined — who would resist their efiforts with 
all the power and all the force they could command." 

Speaking in the House of Commons, March 31, 1914, Mr. 
Long said : "There is not anybody on that side of the House, who 
has not admitted that the impossible has been arrived at, and that 
you will never be able to use the full forces of the Crown to en- 
force the bill upon Ireland." 

Mr. J. Campbell, K. C, M. P., afterwards "Sir," who was 
legal assessor to the Ulster Provisional Government, laid down 
this proposition at Dublin, January 5, 1912: "He for one would 
never hesitate, either in public or in private, to urge and persuade 
his Loyalist fellow-countrymen to resort to every means, every 
means available to men of honor and of courage, before they 



The Irish Republic 43 

would consent to be deprived of that which was their heritage." 

And so ad infinitum. 

But one word more as to Mr. Carson. His repeated defiance 
of the British government — his arming of the Ulster rebels to 
defy the government, his repeated insistence that his band of re- 
bellious forces in Northeast Ulster would take the field and shoot 
down the loyal English troops sent to enforce Home Rule — would 
make a heavy volume. The following excerpt, however, from his 
speech at Blenheim, July 27, 1912, seems to sum up his precise 
stand. He said: "\Ve will shortly challenge the government to 
interfere with us if they dare, and we will with equanimity await 
the result. We will do this regardless of all consequences, of all 
personal loss, of all inconvenience. They may tell us if they like, 
that that is treason. It is not for men who have such stakes as 
we have at issue to trouble about the cost. We are prepared to 
take the consequences." 

Did the philosophy of the Easter uprising of 1916 go farther? 

The United States Senate, th^ supreme treaty-making power 
of the American Government, while the Peace Conference was in 
session at Paris, passed a resolution, by a vote of 60 to 1, re- 
questing the conference to listen to the claims of Home Rule Ire- 
land, which asserted its right to go to the Peace Conference under 
President Wilson's self-determination principle. The United 
States Senate did not send an ultimatum or indicate what the 
Peace Conference should do with respect to Ireland; it merely 
suggested, which the covenant of the League of Nations as finally 
drawn reserved to any nation in the League, that this question 
be considered. It was then that Sir Edward Carson proceeded to 
set right the United States Senate. He termed its action "un- 
paralleled effrontery." He further said : "The fact that the reso- 
lution was passed for political jiurposes, in order to weaken the 
position of President Wilson, and as a maneouver in the game 
of political parties in America, is a demonstration of the uses to 
which the policy of the League of Nations may be diverted, and 
it makes one think seriously, as to whether international difficul- 
ties may not be increased rather than diminished if, at the outset 
of this new international venture, an act of indecency of such a 
character is to pass without protest." Coincidentally with this 
expression of his opinion of the country that helped to do a pretty 
fair job at Chateau Thierry and in the Argonne, he threatened to 
again put the Ulster rebel army in the field (in 1919!) to defeat 
Home Rule, defying the entire British government. 

Lest American people generally should erroneously get the im- 
pression that Sir Edward speaks the true sentiments of all the 



44 The Irish Republic 

English people in England towards the United States, we quote 
from the London Times, as follows : "We find little trace of any 
sense of international responsibility in his (Carson's) speech of 
Saturday. When Sir Edward Carson tells America to mind her 
own business, he courts retorts that wishes of fifteen million Irish- 
Americans in the United States are part of her business, that 
their doings form part of her own questions at home, and that had 
it not been for British mismanagement of Ireland in the past, there 
might today be fewer Irish-American citizens animated by ill-will 
toward this country. As for Sir Edward Carson's threats of 
armed rebellion, we regard them as having perilious likeness to 
threats of direct action by British imitations of Russian Bolshev- 
ists." 

TheDaily Mail asks: "Is there to be one law for Mr. Smillie 
(chief of the coal miners) and another for Sir Edward Carson? 
In March, Mr. Bonar Law solemnly declared that against direct 
action by miners and transport men, the government would use 
all the resources of the State, without the smallest hesitation. 
Saturday, at Belfast, Sir Edward Carson threatened to call Ulster 
to arms again if the government should attempt any settlement in 
Ireland, which had not been previously stamped with his approval. 
What is the government's answer this time?" 



•^» 



45 



CHAPTER VIII 



FISH AND FOWL 



THE Easter, 1916, Insurrection was founded on the exact phi- 
losophy set forth by the leaders of the Ulster rebellion of 
1912-1914— the moral right to rebel against English laws. The 
Republican leaders of the South saw rebellion preached with im- 
punity, saw not only the landing of German rifles but the drill- 
ing of the Carson army, listened to their leaders solemnly avow 
that they would strike hands with Emperor William of Germany 
before they would submit to the carrying out of the Parliamentary' 
act providing for a cjualified form of Home Rule. 

The difference between the speeches of Sir Edward Carson, 
Mr. Bonar Law, Lord Robert Cecil, Sir Frederick E. Smith, and 
Chancellor Campbell on the one hand, and the speeches of De 
Valera, Connolly, Pearse and Griffith on the other, was that one 
defiance was aimed at England for attempting to let in a little 
liberty, while the other was aimed at England for not letting in 
complete liberty. 

The Ulster Provisional (iovernment was declared established 
at Belfast on September 24, 1913. Sir Edward Carson was given 
supreme command. Sir James Campbell was legal assessor. 
Other members of the "central authority" were Charles Bates, K. 
C. ; F. Brunskill, K. C. ; James Chambers, K. C, M. P. ; G. Feath- 
erston, K. C, M. P. ; John Gordon, K. C. M. P. ; William Moore, 
K. C, M. P., and D. M. Wilson, K. C. Sir John Lonsdale, M. P., 
was a member. 

Of these, Campbell, Ciordon and Moore were afterwards made 
judges of the High Court, and Campbell Lord Chancellor of Ire- 
land, by the English government. Sir Edward Carson was taken 
into the Cabinet, was made Attorney General, and subseciuently 
Secretary to the Admiralty. Chambers v/as made solicitor-gen- 
eral for Ireland, and Sir John Lonsdale was made a peer. 

The Irish Provisional Government was declared established in 
Dublin, on April 24, 1916. Thomas J. Clarke was President, and 
James Connolly was Commandant of the Dublin District. Thomas 
McDonagh, P. H. Pearse, Sean MacDermott, Edmund Kent, and 
Joseph Plunkett were amongst other prominent members. 

AH the Provisional Governors were tried by court-martial, and 
sentenced to death. They were shot at Richmond Barracks, Dub- 
lin, between the 3rd and 13th of May, 1916. Sir James Campbell, 



46 The Irish Republic ' 

K. C, M. P., one of the Ulster rebels, had then become Attorney- 
General. 

The "Who's Who" of the more prominent Ulster Rebel lead- 
ers follows: Sir Edward Carson (President of the Ulster Pro- 
visional Government) — Attorney-General for England, May, 
1915; First Lord of the Admiralty, December, 1916; Member of 
the War Cabinet, July, 1917. 

Mr. Bonar Law (Leader of the Die-Hards) — Secretary for 
the Colonies May, 1915; Chancellor of the Exchecjuer, Leader of 
the House of Commons, and Member of the War Cabinet, De- 
cember, 1916. 

Sir F. E. Smith (Galloper to General Richardson, Commander- 
in-Chief of the Ulster Army) — .Solicitor-General for England, 
May, 1915; Attorney-General, 1916. 

Sir J. H. Campbell (Legal Assessor to the Ulster Provisional 
Government) — Attorney-General for Ireland, April, 1916; Lord 
Chief Justice for Ireland, December, 1916; Lord Chancellor of 
Ireland, June, 1918. 

Sir James Craig (Chief of StafT of LUster Army) — Treasurer 
of His Majesty's Household, December, 1916. 

Mr. John Gordon, M. P. — Attorney General for Ireland, May, 
1915 ; Judge of the High Court of Justice, July, 1916. 

Mr. William Moore, M. P. (Member of Ulster Provisional 
Crovernment) — Judge of the High Court of Justice in Ireland, 
1918. 

Mr. Walter Long, M. P. — President of the Local Government 
Board, 1915; Secretary of State for the Colonies, December, 
1916; Irish adviser to the War Cabinet, 1918. 



The Irish Republic 47 



CHAPTER IX 

THE RELIGIOUS ISSUE 

WHEN I talk with our American Protestants not conversant 
with Irish history they are somewhat amazed to learn 
that in the last one hundred and twenty years of Irish turmoil 
nearly all the outstanding rebels against I^^nglish rule have been 
Protestants. O'Connell and Redmond, and recently Dillon and 
De Valera, were the conspicuous Catholic leaders of the century. 

An amusing incident was reported to me in Illinois. A young 
Irish father had brought his son to the Catholic church in a rural 
community for baptism. When it came time to divulge the boy's 
saint's name, the proud father announced : "Robert Emmet !" 

Emmet, held in the deepest veneration by all Catholics of Ire- 
land, was a Protestant. 

Henry Grattan, before him and after him, and a patriot whose 
eloquence struck as deeply into the Irish heart as that of any 
human being in Ireland's history, if not more so, was a Protestant. 

The stormy Wolf Tone, who came to America and then went 
to France, pleading for arms and soldiers as well as a navy, was 
a Protestant. 

Lord Edward Fitzgerald, associated with Tone in the memor- 
able '98 rebellion, was a Protestant. It was men of this type 
who led the Ulster Protestants as well as Dublin Catholics against 
England at that time, and paid for it with their lives. 

An aged and very devout Catholic woman of Dublin, during 
the conscription and deportation excitement of 1918, said to me: 

"Lord Edward was the true type of the Irishman who loves 
Ireland. He had wealth and position and honors and everything 
to live for, had he but served the king. He flung all these aside 
for Ireland and went bravely to his death. He was a dashing 
figure, a magnetic soul, and Ireland always will revere his memory 
second to none." 

W'illiam Smith O'Brien, a name that ranks among Irish pa- 
triots, was a Protestant. He was sentenced to be hung or be- 
headed in the Tower of London for "treason to the king." And 
Catholic Ireland erected a monument to his memory which now 
stands on Dublin's main thoroughfare. 

Sir Isaac Butt, founder of the Home Rule party, was a Pro- 
testant, and Catholic Irishmen today pronounce the name rever- 
ently. 

John Mitchel, grandfather of the late Mayor John Puroy 



48 The Irish Republic 

Mitchel of New York city, and the "fiery Gael" in the '48 insur- 
rection, was a Protestant. No man has more scathingly indicted ; 
English rule than he. He said that were it possible he would 
clutch the fires of hell in his hand and fling them in the face of. 
England. He was deported to Australia. 

Charles Stewart Parnell, subjected to the most diabolical of 
government plotting, even the use of a woman, to destroy his 
good name, was a Protestant. And there stands at the upper 
end of O'Connell street today one of the noblest efligies in the , 
world. vSt. Gaudens, who fashioned the Lincoln statue in Chi- 
cago's public park by that name, moulded this figure of Parnell. v 
The very bronze seems to speak. The writer was an eye-witness 
of the veneration held for Parnell to the present day in the hearts 
of the Catholics of the island. During the conscription and de- 
portation excitement the old flower women of O'Connell street, 
on coming from St. Patrick's pro-cathedral, on leaving their Cath- ^ 
olic altars, would proceed to the Parnell monument and there lay 
their fresh Irish roses and the sprigs of purple heather on the ^ 
plinth. There was not a day through the three long, turbulent 
months, from April to July, that a green sprig of some sort was 
not entwined in the bronze hands by humble Catholic souls of 
the capital. 

Surely, we are not going to be ungenerous enough in this en- 
lightened day to take Patrick Henry and General Mulligan and 
General Sheridan out of our American history and out of our 
American hearts because they carried a crucifix ! Nor are we 
going to be that ungallant as to turn up our noses at the mention 
of the name of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies — 
General Ferdinand Foch — because he is a Catholic, and a good 
one! A careful study of Irish history will convince the most 
bigoted of our American Protestants that Irish aspiriations for 
freedom at this hour are in no way prompted by Catholic intoler- 
ance or intrigue, or an even remote desire to bring Ireland under ' 
the rule of Rome. The charge is no more to be enertained than > 
the suggestion that the Irishmen from Ireland who fought with' 
George Washington were actuated by narrow religious motives. In 
Washington's army Irish Proestants and Irish Catholics, driven 
from their native heath by English tyranny, were fighting side by 
side to push back from the western hemisphere the rule of a 
nation by a nation. They believed they were fighting for freedom 
of conscience as well as civil liberty and the rights of men every- 
where to choose their way of life and obedience. 

There may be two sides to the question as to whether inde- 
pendence or Dominion Home Rule is preferable for Ireland's 




The Late John Redmond 



The Irish Republic 49 

good; but it is not just or defensible tbat Irisb claims should be 
prejudiced by religious bigotry in 1919. 

Protestants in America, and in all countries for that matter, 
who are not familiar with Irish history, have been led to be- 
lieve that the controlling motive back of the self-government 
forces in Ireland, for many generations, had its root in Rome— 
that it was more a Papal movement to control Ireland in the in- 
terests of the Catholic Church than it was a truly patriotic motive. 
Protestants generally, too, in this country, have the impression 
that the Protestants in Ireland have not permitted their church to 
become identified with their resistance to Home Rule. 

Of course, to one impartially informed, and fully informed of 
the present situation in Ireland, the church issue in the South is 
merely collateral, at the most, whatever it has been in the past. 
Sinn Fein, both in spirit and in its published manifestoes, does 
not recognize religious distinction of any kind. It may be stated 
without fear of intelligent contradiction that Sinn Fein is per- 
haps the first genuinely democratic movement in Ireland modeled 
upon the constitution of the United States, with particular respect 
to religious and civil liberty. It is not too much to say that, at 
this time (July, 1919) the principal church activities solely as 
church activities involved in the Irish trouble are in the Protestant 
Church of the island. 

It is true that a great majority of the Sinn Feiners are Cath- 
olics and it is also true, however it may be disputed, we firmly be- 
lieve, that their church affiliation is a subsidiary matter. Their 
first concern is self-government, and in that movement today the 
Protestant Ulsterman, who stands for Ireland's independence, is 
welcome even with more eclat than his Catholic fellow-citizen, 
and is honored for both his stand for freedom and his preserva- 
tion of his church ideals. 

It is quite true, also, that the Church. North and South, has 
got a lot of things to answer for, but today the most insistent 
church party that builds its political activity on its religious creed 
is our Protestant Church in the North. 

The Reverend S. R. Anderson at Arvinstown, May 10, 1912, 
was reported as begging his flock, the anti-Home-Rulers, "to put 
their trust in God, and be ready to shed their blood and risk their 
lives on behalf of the great privileges they now enjoy." 

The Reverend Doctor McKean, ex-moderator of the general 
assembly, preaching at a special service in the Ulster Hall, on 
September 28, 1912. in the presence of Sir Edward Carson and the 
members of the Ulster Provisional Government, was reported 
as follows: "They were standing that day in the face of a great 



50 The Irish Republic 

religious and political issue which might involve the destruction 
of their liberties, and even the peace of their country. They knew 
there were many people, and even some preachers of the Gos- 
pel, who thought it a degradation of the Christian pulpit to deal 
with such questions, even on such a special occasion as Ulster 
Day. They refused to be influenced by the opinion or silenced by 
the criticisms of such men. They claimed the right to lay the 
divine measuring line on every attempted form of legislation 
bearing on the character, the freedom, and the well-being of the 
people. It would be an evil day for this country, when the poli- 
tics of it were of such a quality that religious people could not 
touch them. They were now called upon to defend more than 
their faith. They told their fellow-countrymen that so long as 
they persisted in pressing that preposterous policy, they would 
meet them with the old battle-cry of the Maiden City. It was a 
policy to which they could never submit, and they meant to do 
everything that Christian men could to make it impossible." 

The Protestant Bishop of Down and Connor, in Belfast Cath- 
edral, September 28, 1912, said : "When we see the men of Ulster 
filled with that noble spirit of self-sacrifice in behalf of liberty 
which fired their ancestors, displaying more than any other men 
today their patriotic devotion which has made Britain what she 
is, we cannot hold aloof. The Covenant is a pledge to stand by 
one another in our resolve to save our country at all costs. It 
means that we are ready to make any sacrifice to avert the great- 
est of calamities. It rests upon the principle that when life and 
liberty are threatened, men are bound to risk all. In essence, it 
simply states what is true at all places and times — that men, true 
men, must be prepared to hold together in defense of their altars 
and their hearths, and to face all dangers." 

Doctor Chadwick, Protestant Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, in 
Glendermot parish church, after a parade of Ulster Volunteers, 
September, 1912, said: "No man can really suppose that the 
Christian religion forbade any violence under any conceivable cir- 
cumstances whatever. There were causes which no Christian was 
at liberty to fail to defend, even to the uttermost, and there was 
a righteous indignation — righteous indignation at wrong, and in- 
justice, and encroachment upon liberty. To be tame, to be submis- 
sive always, when great things were at stake — that was not the 
Christian temper." 

Coincidently with the Maynouth conference of 1918, at which 
the Catholic hierarchy decided to oppose conscription, Lloyd 
George, Premier of Great Britain, formally protested against the 
Catholic Church interesting itself in Irish politics. There is. 



The Irish Republic 51 

however, no official record of the British government showing 
a similar rebuke was offered the Protestant Church in the North 
for its part in the Ulster rebellion. We shall have occasion far- 
ther on in this chronicle to go into the "No Popery" issue more 
fully. 

Of this church activity in the North against Home Rule (1912- 
1914), which had been given the more alliterative designation of 
"Rome Rule" by the Covenanters, Mrs. Green records: 

"From time to time public meetings were held to announce 
the general decisions of the new Ulster government, while the 
administration was skilfully carried out in camera. Fiery de- 
nunciations of the king and Parliament of Fngland, and of all 
the rest of Ireland, along with the Pope, were addressed to the 
j)ublic. The immense funds at the disposal of the governing body 
made it easy to arrange exhilarating festivals and gatherings for 
the encouragement of the jieople. The state had been cemented 
by a sworn Covenant, and the attendant religious ceremonies em- 
phasized the doctrine of a peculiar peoi)le, chosen by a special 
Deity. 'Oh, God,' ran the prayer of one of the greatest Presby- 
terian assemblies in a chief center of Covenanters, who had met 
on the great day of signing to consecrate their work, 'Oh, God, 
remember that Thou are not a God like other gods.' The nat- 
urally militant and aggressive character of a 'chosen people' was 
emphasized by a multitude of sermons in which, so far as we can 
judge from those printed in the papers, the texts were invariably 
taken from the warlike incitements of Old Testament warriors 
and proi)hets, while only two were adopted by the leading preach- 
ers from the New Testament of the Christian faith: T am not 
come to send peace but a sword' ; 'He that hath no sword, let him 
sell his cloak and buy one.' In such a temper, the London Times 
saw a spiritual hope. 'The Covenant,' it wrote on May 3, 1913, 
'was a mystical affirmation. . . . Ulster seemed to enter into 
an offensive and defensive alliance with Deity.' " 

There can be no doubt that religious toleration has a greater 
number, proportionately, of sincere sui)porters in the South than 
in Ulster. A concrete demonstration of this was given in the Irish 
convention of 1917-18 when the Nationalists, comprising the lead- 
ing Catholic minds of the island, stood solidly for a section in the 
new constitution that would make sure religious liberty for their 
Protestant brothers in the North. Catholic Ireland is no longer 
vengeful. It would not, if it could, at least Sinn Fein would not, 
restrict the free play of conscience, even for those whose forbears 
fastened upon Catholic Ireland the penal and disability laws — the 
most degrading and inhuman in history. 



52 The Irish Republic 

The Sinn Fein flag itself indicates the freedom of conscience 
which underhes the new movement and which must be the founda- 
tion of any enduring repubhc — rehgious as well as political liberty. 
The three colors stand for a united Ireland — the gold for the 
Protestants of Ulster, the green for St. Patrick's Ireland and the 
national aspiration of the generations, and the white for the peace 
that shall come between them. 

The Sinn Fein flag is a democratic ensign. 

St. John G. Ervine in his book. Sir Edward Carson And The 
Ulster Movement, states the whole Ulster case in about two hun- 
dred words. He says : "The Ulsterman is opposed to Home Rule 
for two reasons. He dislikes the Roman Catholic church, and is 
of the opinion that Home Rule, as the late Duke of Abercorn 
phrased it. means Rome Rule. His second ground of opposition 
to Home Rule lies in his contempt for the business capacity of 
the average Nationalist : he fears that they will so misrule Ire- 
land that the cost of government will increase inordinately and 
that he and his kinsmen will find the incidence of taxation so 
arranged by the Catholic majority that Ulster will have to bear 
the heaviest part of it. I am not now concerned with the truth 
or falsity of these beliefs. I merely state that they are held, and 
sincerely held, by the mass of the Ulster Protestants. The fear 
of Catholicism is, of course, the stronger of the two. I have met 
Belfastmen who have said to me that they would become Home 
Rulers were it not for the Catholic church. These two objec- 
tions to Home Rule are the beginning and the end of the Ulster 
Protestant opposition to Irish autonomy." 



53 



CHAPTER X 



BACHELOR S WALK 



WE have seen how the Protestant rebels of Ulster had suc- 
cessfully defied both king and Parliament in opposition to 
Home Rule ; how the leaders, backed by the church, had de- 
clared even that they preferred the rule of the German Kaiser 
to Home Rule ; how they had gone about, raising and drilling and 
equipping an army of several hundred thousand; how they had 
mocked at the English government and on the surface at least 
had dared the king and his whole entourage to come forth and 
try the issues at arms; how, after laying down the principle that 
Irishmen in Ireland had a moral right to armed rebellion when- 
ever a law of the Imperial Parliament was distasteful to 
them, finally the foremost spokesmen of the rebellion had 
made their blufif good and had not only been forgiven for their 
"high treason" but had been taken into the British Cabinet and 
subsequently became the trusted agents of the British government 
itself. 

The episodes in the early stages of the Ulster rebellion were 
watched with the keenest interest by the Nationalists (and by 
Nationalists we mean not only the Redmond Parliamentary party 
but that group of young Irishmen who were beginning to feel 
the first thrill of their inherited patriotism). 

To the leaders in the Home Rule movement who were ob- 
serving the fight of seven hundred years culminating in victory, 
Ulster's position was analagous to that of the Southern common- 
wealths in the United States in 1861 — that Ireland could not exist 
half Home Rule and half English rule, even as the United States, 
as Lincoln said, could not exist half slave and half free. Civil 
war seemed imminent, unless Nationalist Ireland was ready 
to surrender to the small minority in the Northeast. Surrender 
was out of the question. There was nothing to do but fight. Ac- 
cordingly, there sprang up in the latter part of 1913 a small move- 
ment which was to become in Irish history likely the greatest 
of all. This was the organization to be known as the Irish Vol- 
unteers, and later the Sinn Fein. We shall get better acquainted 
with them in Easter Week. 

There was but a mere handful at the outset, but this handful 
saw clearly that there was little hope in the Redmond party, par- 
ticularly since the British government had not only connived ap- 
parently at the landing of German arms in Ulster, but was not 



54 The Irish Republic 

moved to treat seriously the parliamentary act which was to 
establish HomiC Rule. And in understanding the subsequent 
events, we may here note what is not generally understood that 
the young movement or Irish Volunteers at no time condemned 
the Ulster rebels for arming themselves. They did not question 
the right in itself. They offered no protest to the British gov- 
ernment on this score, for, although the time might come when 
they would be forced to settle their differences in civil war, Ulster 
in this respect was carrying out what the real Irishmen had al- 
ways contended, namely, the right to arm themselves in defense 
of what they conceived to be their rights. But when it became 
apparent to them that the government was being bluffed by the 
Ulster rebels, the Irish Volunteers quickly sprang into life, pos- 
sibly thrilled with the anticipation that they too might be able to 
bluff the British government to the extent at least that England 
could be driven out of Ireland. The wishy-washy attitude of the 
Redmondites (whose fight up to this time for Home Rule should 
always be held in high reverence by the true friends of Irish 
autonomy) did not strike the real chord in the Irish heart, al- 
though they did hold with the Volunteers that the time had come 
to "maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of 
Ireland," since Ulster had set out "to make the display of military 
force and the menace of armed violence the determining factor 
in the future relations between this country and Great Britain." It 
was generally accepted in, the South and West that it was uj) to 
Irishmen who had the historic Irish aspirations at heart to act 
accordingly. 

And they declared that, if Irishmen "failed to take such meas- 
ures as will effectually reject this policy, we become politically the 
worst degraded population in Europe." Two men in Dublin who 
hitherto had been unknown in Irish politics suddenly sprang into 
prcminence. They were Mr. John MacNeill, professor of old 
Irish history at the National University (and still is as this is 
written), and Mr. Laurence Kettle, a Dublin solicitor, and brother 
of the late Lieutenant T. J. Kettle, a former member of the 
Irish party in the House of Commons. They were the promoters 
of the inaugural meeting of the Volunteers in Dublin. They were 
subsequently joined by Colonel Moore, who at once put his mili- 
tary experience at the disposal of the organization. He was a 
brother of George Moore, the novelist, and had served in the 
South African war. He was not, however, at the time classed as 
a revolutionist. Colonel Moore subsequently set down his impres- 
sions of the first meeting he attended. These impressions are 
worthy of reproduction here as a historical note. He said : "On 



The Irish Republic 55 

my first entrance I found about twenty-five members present; 
nearly all of them were young men, some merely boys of twenty; 
some seemingly less. None of them knew anything of military af- 
fairs, but they had hired halls for drilling and obtained the free 
service of excellent men to instruct them. Except Mr. John Mac- 
Neill and Mr. Pearse and Mr. MacDonagh, I had never seen 
or heard of any of them before, and it took me two or three 
days to size them up and separate the groups. There were about 
two extremists, and four or five boys under their domination ; 
these latter men were mild and quiet and by no means unrea- 
sonable. Five or six Sinn Feiners were in a separate group ; they 
might be described as extreme Home Rulers. They did not 
approve of the methods of the Parliamentary party (Redmond) 
but were not revolutionists. There were a few, like MacNeill, 
Pearse, MacDonagh, Plunkett, and O'Rahilly, who belonged to no 
special political party; they were idealists. The remainder of 
the committee were moderate men, inclined to follow the Parlia- 
mentary party. It will be interesting to note how some of the 
.Sinn Fein party and some of the idealists gradually became ex- 
tremists and merged with the Fenians." 

As the Volunteer movement attracted new members, Mr. Red- 
mond and the Parliamentary party leaders evinced some hostility. 
The eye-witness commentators of this period set it down in part 
as jealousy, as a movement possibly calculated to further cause 
schisms in the South and West. An act of the British govern- 
ment, however, at this time, played into the hands of the Volun- 
teers. That was the proclamation prohibiting the importation of 
arms in Ireland, in December, 1913. The Covenanters, under Mr. 
Carson, as we have seen, were well organized at this time, even 
before the importation of the German rifles; in fact, had been 
equipping themselves for a full year. The young Volunteers were 
quick to make capital of this proclamation, and to spread the 
suspicion that the British government was not dealing straight- 
forwardly with the Irish question since it had allowed Sir Edward 
Carson and his anti-Home Rule faction a whole year in which to 
prepare before announcing the arms embargo. 

■ The leaders of the Volunteers also, emulating Sir Edward Car- 
son, displayed utter indifi^erence to the arms embargo proclama- 
tion and began drilling all over the south of Ireland, getting in 
what few arms they could, which, indeed, were like the proverbial 
hen's teeth, few and far between. However, Mr. Redmond and 
his associates were forced to treat the Volunteers as a serious 
movement, and they set about to take them in. This was finally 
accomplished, so far as the personnel of the committee was con- 



56 The Irish Republic 

cerned, "Mr. John MacNeill and his friends accepting Mr. Red- 
mond's uhimatum with what grace they could," on the repre- 
sentation that the Nationalists would uphold the Volunteers' aims 
in a thorough defense of Home Rule. The coalition was not to 
be long-lived. 

Meantime, the Covenanters up North, under Carson's leader- 
ship, snapped their fingers not only at the Imperial Parliament's 
seeming attitude toward Home Rule, but the Imperial Par- 
liament's edict against the importation of arms. Mr. Carson an- 
nounced that they could pass all the laws they wanted to pass at 
Westminster, he would still get arms, as he needed them, and 
he did. At the same time, they made an opera bonffet of the 
government's ostensible effort to enforce its decree, a spectacle 
which convinced many astute observers that the government was 
lending itself to Ulster aims while pretending to be outraged. 
The Curragh mutiny, when the government troops indicated they 
would not coerce Ulster, and the cruise of the two gunboats In 
Belfast Lough, a la Pinafore, when the crew of the gunboats 
received invitations to tea "from the very culprits whom they had 
come to overawe," made a further impression in the South. The 
South was being aroused by the "tricks and manoeuvers" of the 
"wily old birds" of the North, and advanced from the laughter 
to the serious stage in their organization for defense. 

That the British government did not intend to enforce Home 
Rule if the act should be placed on the statute books was the con- 
clusion arrived at by the far-seeing minds in the Volunteer move- 
ment. They came to the conclusion that they would have to en- 
force self-government themselves, or see it fall by what they 
termed another display of British duplicity, of British chicanery, 
of British cant and British hypocrisy. It was up to the Volun- 
teers to arm themselves as quickly as possible to meet Carson if 
not the government. So in June, 1914, the Volunteers issued 
their manifesto requesting the government to withdraw im- 
mediately the proclamation prohibiting the importation of arms in 
Ireland. They based this request on the admitted facts, namely, 
that they were supporting national autonomy which the govern- 
ment seemed to be supporting. Mr. John MacNeill and Mr. L. J. 
Kettle prepared the manifesto which concluded as follows: "The 
right of a free people to carry arms in defense of their freedom 
is an elementary part of political liberty. The denial of that right 
is a denial of political liberty and consistent only with a despotic 
form of government." The government took no notice of this, 
and the Volunteers, supported by a considerable element of the 
Nationalist party, took matters in their own hands. 



The Irish Republic 57 

Their agents managed to assemble a few ancient fowling- 
pieces, gathered, it was said, in Spain, Italy, and England. There 
was at least one machine gun. This machine gun was landed in 
Ireland in a coffin, and formed the strangely-garbed corpse in an 
imposing funeral cortege and a subsequent "wake" at the A. 
O. H. hall in Dublin, at which many glowing compliments were 
paid the deceased. 

The Volunteers desired to match the magnitude of the Car- 
son defiance, and for this purpose they also chartered a large 
yacht, on which they loaded their rifles (not in Germany) and 
which bravely sailed into Howth harbor, early in the forenoon of 
July 26, 1914. This date must be considered large by the future 
historians seeking to discover from what sources, apparently small 
in themselves, the subsequent upheaval came. Future Irish rec- 
ords must, perforce, be somewhat clutterd with the reiterated thrill 
— "Remember July twenty-six !" Sir Roger Casement in Ger- 
many (before the United States entered the war) was unable to 
attract Irish prisoners of war until he said to them: "Remember 
Bachelor's Walk." 

Upwards of one thousand Volunteers were at the pier to 
formally welcome the boat and take charge of its cargo. They 
at once proceeded to unload the rifles. One of the curses of Ire- 
land has been the informer. There seems to have been one such 
here, for Dublin Castle, the seat of British government in Ire- 
land, soon was apprised of what was going on. The Volunteers, 
meantime, bearing their rifles, had started for their homes. 

At Marino Crescent, what was their surprise to learn that the 
government, which had permitted Carson to land his German 
rifles from the Fanny, had sent British soldiers and the Metro- 
politan police of Dublin to deny them the same right, and they 
who were to defend Home Rule, the national autonomy! There 
were about 200 English soldiers in the intercepting party. They 
ordered the Volunteers to give up their arms. The Volunteers 
refused. In the brief conflict which followed, a lance corporal 
of the Scottish Borderers was wounded. A few of the Volunteers 
suffered broken heads from the blows of clubbed rifles. The Vol- 
unteers, without relinquishing their guns, took to the fields and 
made their way into the city. 

The soldiers of the king began their return march to Dublin, 
It was about 6 :30 o'clock in the evening when they reached what 
is known as Bachelor's Walk. A crowd of Irish freedom sym- 
pathizers, unarmed, had gathered here. The crowd displayed a 
hostile attitude, whereupon the king's soldiers lowered their rifles 



58 The Irish Republic 

and fired, killing three men and injuring a large number. Women 
and children were among the wounded. 

It is difficult to approximate the effect of this act on Irish his- 
tory. The Ulster gun-runners had gone unpunished. The Vol- 
unteers had been shot down like dogs in the street. England's 
charged duplicity was no longer a moot question in the South. 
Though the loss of life was small, the horror felt in- the South 
was akin to the horror Mr. Russell suggested — the horror of a 
child when it looks upon a monster which it believes has com- 
mitted some terrible sin like the sin against the Holy Ghost ! 

Bachelor's Walk was Ireland's Boston Massacre. The victims 
were given a popular funeral, while the Scottish Borderers were 
discreetly kept in their barracks. Men's passions, though still and 
deep, were such on that day that the Borderers, even fully armed, 
might have been torn limb from limb had they "profaned" the 
cortege with their presence. 






TO ^ rr, 

H »< 2 

•Ti > r^ 

o z 

M , H 

►< H > 




59 



CHAPTER XI 



THE UNCONQUERABLE THING 



MEN'S faces became hard. They did not speak as they passed 
in village street or country road. But their eyes met. They 
went about with distended nostrils. 

Here was something too enormous for language. 

Added to the horror of it was a new and deeper passion of 
loathing for everything British. You could not have given such 
men as these a place in the English Cabinet. The protifer would 
have strangled them ; for, endeavoring to express themselves, 
even with restraint, their arteries w^ould have burst. 

The water of hate was seeping nearer and nearer to the molten 
lava beneath. A fault of the earth was impending. The volcano 
was to labor and cover Dublin with its ashes. 

Cavour, sometimes styled the maker of modern Italy, has 
observed that the law of chemistry is also the law of politics — the 
greater the compression of a solution the more destructive the 
explosion ; the heavier the oppression laid upon a people the more 
terrible the eruption. 

In Belfast, the Ulster rebels advertised their defiance, made 
a gala festival of it, with processions and pennants and dazzling 
uniforms and a bedlam of ryHiiundiiig oratory. 

In Dublin, they went unostentatiously through side streets and 
narrow alleys, in the old p/rt of town near Christ Church and by 
the noisome walls of the/Liffey, by the Custom House, and up 
Westmoreland Row, loititring at Liberty Hall, or making grimaces 
at "King Billy" on his leaden horse, planning. 

One exhibited the adornments of a pageant ; the other wore 
the vestments of martyrs. One threatened ; the other thrust. One 
invested a wind-mill; the other assaulted an empire. One made 
a bargain ; the other made a grave. One lived to fight another 
day ; the other f ouglit and died. One was invited to Whitehall ; 
the other was imbedded in quicklime. One bluffed ; the other per- 
formed. One got/its price ; the other got immortality. 



/? 





60 



CHAPTER XII 

TRYING TO BE ENGLAND'S FRIEND 

BACHELOR'S WALK fell on July 26. On August 4, just 
nine days later, the terrible thunderbolts of the world con- 
flict came from a clear sky. 

In the first thrill virtually all Erin sprang to the colors. There 
ensued a period of several days in which the Home Rule contro- 
versy was set to one side pending Mr. Redmond's negotiations 
with the government in London. Mr. Redmond, meantime, aris- 
ing in the House of Commons, made his famous speech in which 
he "assured Englishmen of the unconditional loyalty of his 
countrymen during the European crisis." This declaration thrilled 
all England, and it was followed by energetic recruiting in the 
South and West of Ireland. Ireland, so recently torn with fac- 
tional strife, seemed to have come to the defense of the British 
Empire almost unanimously. It was this spectacle that prompted 
Sir Edward Grey to make his now celebrated statement that Ire- 
land was the "one bright spot." 

It would not be accurate, however, to say that Ireland was a 
unit for the war. In some Sinn Fein and labor circles there was 
still considerable skepticism. They were yet thinking of a free 
Ireland and not a triumphant Britain. Sean MacDearmada, in 
his revolutionary pamphlet, Irish Freedom, was outspokenly op- 
posed to Great Britain's war stand. Presently, however, the un- 
certainty over the disposition of the Home Rule bill was dis- 
pelled. Redmond had persuaded the government to place the 
measure on the statute book, but agreed that it should be held 
up for the period of the war. Immediately Sir Edward Carson 
and his followers in Ulster showed their teeth again to Downing 
Street. They would have none of the Home Rule bill as it 
stood, and not until after the Ulster leaders apparently were given 
to understand that an amending measure would be considered, did 
Ulster finally get into the war whole-heartedly. This amend- 
ing measure, as it was understood back in Ireland, was a partition 
scheme, by which the Ulster counties in the final draft of the bill 
were to be set oif to one side as a part of the Imperial Govern- 
ment. 

Redmond could have refused the government's ofifer for a sus- 
pension of the act and plunged Ireland into civil war. Instead, 
he took the government at its w'ord, delivered the aspirations of 



The Irish Republic 61 

Ireland into the government's keeping, and went forth to summon 
all his people to the business of the world war. 

Colonel Moore, in his evidence before the Royal Commission, 
testified as to the unanimity with which the National Volunteers 
and the Irish Volunteers joined hands in this recruiting move- 
ment, particularly in the provinces of Leinster, Munster and 
Connaught. There was hardly a discordant note, and Colonel 
Moore adds: "We had already far surpassed the Ulster Vol- 
unteers in number, and now also we were ahead of them in the 
rank and position of our officers. We had succeeded in welding 
together all parties in at least three out of the four provinces, and 
we had achieved this result without money or patronage, but 
merely by the patriotism of our people, the moderation of our 
ends, and the wisdom of our actions." 

The reaction from Mr. Redmond's "deal" with the government 
by which the Home Rule act was suspended, manifested itself late 
in September. The Irish Volunteer leaders began to fear that the 
suspension of the act meant its indefinite suspension even after the 
war, and that the long struggle of the centuries for self-govern- 
ment was again to be frustrated by some devious course, the exact 
way of which they were in darkness. The Irish Volunteers, who 
had been co-operating wiih the National Volunteers or Redmond- 
ites up to this time, finally issued a statement to the public on Sep- 
tember 25, 1914. This was signed by Mr. MacNeill, The 
O'Raihlly, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, P. H. Pearse, 
Bulmer Hobson, Eamon-Ceannt, Sean MacDearmada and Mel- 
lowes. In this they said: "It is clear that this proposal to throw 
the country into turmoil and to destroy the chances of a Home 
Rule measure in the near future must have been forced upon 
Mr. Redmond. Already, ignoring the Irish Volunteers as a factor 
in the National position, he had consented to a dismemberment 
of Ireland, which could be made permanent by the same agencies 
that forced him to accept it as temporary. He was now prepared 
to risk another disruption and the wreck of the cause entrusted 
to him." 

This class of Irish leaders, who were for Irish freedom be- 
for anything else in the world, began to lose interest in the world 
war in so far as England was concerned. They had rushed to the 
colors in August with the first thought that Ireland's freedom 
was to be given them through the Home Rule bill. This thought 
had now given way to the almost certainty that nothing of the 
sort was in sight. 

Colonel Moore testified : "When at last the Home Rule bill 
was signed, the enthusiasm was gone, and the fact that it was not 



62 The Irish Republic 

to be put into force until after the war, with the threat of an un- 
defined amending bill, left the uncertainty as great as ever. How- 
ever, there was a time after the outbreak of the war when Hone 
Rule Ireland could have been made doubtless the friend of Eng- 
land forever." 

It was when the first systematic scheme of recruiting was pro- 
posed to the War Office. This scheme contemplated the removal 
of the British troops from Ireland immediately and the bringing 
of both the Ulster Volunteers and the Nationalists, as well as the 
Irish Volunteers, into a scheme of military training. It was pro- 
posed that 20.000 of the Volunteers be placed in the barracks at a 
time, and these, after two months' training, be sent to the finish- 
ing camps and their places taken by a new levy of 20.000 Volun- 
teers. Mr. Redmond's spokesman agreed to this, as did Mr. John 
MacNeill. MacNeill, as a matter of fact, went to the Royal Hos- 
pital to further discuss the proposal. It was then that the late 
Lord Kitchener made what we may be justified in terming his first 
blunder in Ireland. He refused to consider the proposal. 

Colonel Moore, testifying before the Rebellion Commission 
after Easter Week, said : "I want to lay stress on the fact that 
the leaders of the Irish Volunteers, and among them participators 
in the late rebellion (Easter Week), 7uere at that time willing to 
join in the defense of the Empire but were refused by the gov- 
ernment." 

Even the Unionist leaders were disappointed in Kitchener's 
refusal to consider this plan of putting all of Ireland into the 
war. 

Sir Morgan O'Connell, a staunch Unionist, of Kerry, testify- 
ing before the Commission, said: "When the war started, the vast 
majority of Irishmen were in sympathy with England." 

The psychologic effect of Kitchener's attitude was to arouse 
in the hearts of the Irish Volunteers the thought that Ireland's 
aspiration for freedom were being deliberately frowned upon. The 
Irish Volunteers were ready to fight for England, but they wanted 
to do the fighting as the soldiers of an Irish nation. They ac- 
cordingly reverted to their centuries-old shibboleth that Ireland 
is a nation, and with this thought as the background, the Irish 
Volunteers had laid down the principle that "Ireland could not 
with honor or safety take part in foreign quarrels other than 
through the free action of a national government of her own." 

They reaffirmed their demand for the Home Rule act without 
amendment and "repudiated any undertaking, by whomsoever 
given, to consent to the legislative dismemberment of the country." 
vSeveral of the signatories to this declaration took part in the 



The Irish Republic 63 

Easter insurrection. Even Mr. John Dillon, who was not in sym- 
pathy with the Irish Volunteers who afterward became merged 
in the Sinn Fein movement, inveighed against the threatened 
amending act, which implied partition. In a speech at Belfast, 
several weeks after the war started, he said : "We will never con- 
sent to divide this island or this nation." 

On the other hand, Ulster was as determined to defeat any 
kind of Home Rule as the Irish Volunteers were determined to 
have it, despite the world war. The Belfast News Letter said: 
"Ulstermen having fought to deliver Belgium from the Prussian 
aggressor will not tamely submit to the subjugation of their 
province." Then followed the May, 1915, act which probably 
had as much or more to do in turning the Irish Volunteers back to 
their old traditions than any one event of the early stages of the 
war. It was the formation of the coalition government into which 
Sir Edward Carson was received as a cabinet member. Here was 
Carson taken into the very highest places of the British govern- 
ment with the memory of Bachelor's W^alk still so fresh in the 
minds of the free Ireland faction. 

The Freeman's Journal, which was not in sympathy with the 
Irish Volunteers, being the m.outhpiece of the Constitutional Na- 
tionalists under Redmond and Dillon, said : "The crown of the 
scandal is the appointment of Sir Edward Carson. The appoint- 
ment is a party outrage. He did not hob-nob with German phi- 
losophers ; but he lunched with the Kaiser; and he was aware of 
the visit of the German Embassy to Ulster. Baron Kuhlmann 
attended at Belfast to review the troops; the troops that Colonel 
Reppington, the slanderer of Kitchener, assured Europe were fit 
to meet the most seasoned troops of Continental armies." 

Notwithstanding the blundering, recruiting went on at a high 
rate in the early months of 1915. By August, General Friend, 
Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland, stated that 80,000 
men had volunteered for service in the world war, and of these 
recruits, 44,000 were Roman Catholics. By December 15, 1915, 
Ulster's enrollment was given as 48,760, and of these more than 
one- fourth were Roman Catholics. 

The South and West did not lose interest in the war and cease 
to give respectful attendance on the singing of "God Save the 
King" till the latter part of 1915. 

Wells and Marlowe, in their History of the Rebellion, say, in 
commenting upon the change that occurred at this time : "First 
among them, no doubt, was the increasing vigor of the Sinn Fein 
propaganda ; but also there grew up a feeling — and it existed even 
among Nationalists who called themselves pro-Ally, that Ireland 



64 The Irish Republic 

had a limited interest in the war. Thirdly, as in England so in 
Irg,land, the appeal of adventure had been by this time pretty fully 
ej^Moited ; economic pressure, too, had done its work. And. finally, 
the .argument about Home Rule on the statute book had lost its 
power of inducing Irishmen to join the army." 

New Ireland, anticipating a third postponement of the Home 
Rule act, said: "If there is to be a third postponement in the 
coming March, the country will be utterly exasperated, and the 
Irish party (Redmond) will have become discredited beyond a 
hope of recovery. The official Nationalist policy has degenerated 
into one long humiliating effort to impress upon the English mind 
that Irishmen have ceased to think of Irish interests, and care for 
nothing but the victory of the Empire; and the only triumi)li that 
policy can secure are the occasional patronizing references in the 
English Tory press to the miraculous transformation of Ireland's 
attitude. If either history or the present psychology of nations 
has any bearing upon the present day, no wilder gamble was ever 
played with the future destinies of Ireland." 

"Nothing now is going well," records Wells, "whatever point 
of view one took, unless it were that of those determined upon 
revolution at all costs, or that of those wdio at all costs were de- 
termined upon the defeat of Home Rule." 

To what extent the government's interference with the Irish 
Volunteers at this time, by way of disarming them and other- 
wise treating them with suspicion, was due to Sir Edward Car- 
son's influence in the Cabinet, the leaders were unable to state. 
That such influences were at work was their belief. Immediately 
their whole thought again centered on the fate of Ireland, and 
not the fate of the rest of the world. The provocative interfer- 
ence of the government with this faction finally called forth a 
public statement from the Council of the Volunteers in the latter 
part of March, a few days before the Easter insurrection. The 
statement follows : 

"With regard to the recent proceedings of the government 
towards the Irish Volunteers, the Council of the Irish Volunteers, 
which met on the 2()th instant, wish to warn the public that the 
general tendency of the government's action is to force a highly 
dangerous situation. The government is well aware that the pos- 
session of arms is essential to the Irish Volunteer organization, 
and the Volunteers cannot submit to being disarmed, either in 
numbers or detail, without surrendering and abandoning the posi- 
tion they have held at all times since their first formation. The 
Volunteer organization also cannot maintain its efficiency without 
organizers. The raiding for arms and attempted disarming of 



The Irish Republic 65 

men, therefore, in the natural course of things can only be met by 
resistance and bloodshed. None of the Irish Volunteers recog- 
nizes, or will ever recognize, the right of the government to dis- 
arm them or to imprison their officers and men in any fashion. 
The Council also draws attention to the re[)eated instances in 
which the government's arbitrary action has been associated with 
the movements of hostile crowds, which are led to believe that 
they act under government approval. In this Council's be- 
lief, this feature of the case is based on a deliberate policy 
of creating hostility between sections of the Irish people. No 
aid need be hoped from remonstrance with the govern- 
ment, but we appeal to the Irish people to look closely 
into the facts in every instance and keep a watch on the conduct 
and policy of the authorities, and to fix the responsibility for any 
grave consequence that may arise. " 

Says Wells : "A religious element did not enter in any way 
into the rebellion of 1916, as it had entered conspicuously into 
rebellions in the past. The rebels of 1916 did not hesitate to 
seize a convent which occupied a position of some tactical im- 
portance, nor did they scruple to send about his business any ec- 
clesiastic who came to them with unpalatable advice." 

Two seemingly trivial incidents should be noted in trying to 
understand by what blundering loyal Ireland of August, 1914, was 
turned into an Ireland torn with bitterness, resentment and dis- 
trust in 1916. To some, perhaps, these incidents may appear of 
capital importance. It is related that when Redmond went home 
and took the recruiting platform, and the young men of Ireland 
hastened to the colors, two stalwart boys from Newcastle-on-the- 
Tyne hastened to Dublin to enlist in his majesty's service. When, 
as the story was circulated throughout all the South and the West, 
these two young men appeared before the recruiting officer (an 
Englishman) they were informed that their services were not 
needed; that thy had too many Irish cattle in the army already, 
and that England was going to win the war without them. 

Whatever the truth of this story, it went through Home Rule 
Ireland like an electric shock. It turned the minds of men, 
women and youths back upon their traditions. They dusted off 
the volumes of forgotten lore and communed again, in spirit at 
least, with the heroes of the past, and the contrast in their minds 
between their household penates and his majesty the king were 
not exactly favorable to the king. 

The second incident was the "insult" to the rising conscious- 
ness of a nationhood when the Irish Division from the South was 
denied the right to adopt a distinguishing insignia for the Division. 



66 The Irish Republic 

It is related that this insignia, on which the harp was prominently 
displayed, was rejoiced in by the sturdy young men who had taken 
up arms for the Empire. Like another horror that was wholly 
inexplainable, except on the ground of utter contempt for Irish- 
men as Irishmen, came the order from London to tear up their 
insignia. It was said that the order was sent by the late Lord 
Kitchener himself, and that, accompanying it was the implication 
that such an insignia was an insult to his majesty the king; that 
only the king enjoyed the prerogative of approving such dis- 
tinctive badges. Perhaps even this "wet blanket" could have been 
overcome or forgotten had it not been that, at about the same 
time, Sir Edward Carson and his associates in the British Cabinet 
were able to secure for the Ulster Division the distinguishing in- 
signia of the Red Hand of Ulster. As the incidents were repeated 
from mouth to mouth in the South and West there ensued the set- 
tled conviction again in many cottages that Irishmen could never 
hope to be treated other than with derision by Englishmen in the 
government. By April, 1916, this feeling had become so intensi- 
fied in many spots of the South that whether England won the 
world war was a matter of minor consideration. 



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67 



CHAPTER XIII 



LEADERS OF THE INSURRECTION 



THE leaders in the Easter insurrection were scholars — pro- 
fessors, teachers, historians, scientists, poets and artists. John 
MacNeill, though active in the mobilization of the Volunteers, at 
the last moment endeavored to stop the uprising and took no part 
in it. However, he was subsequently sentenced to death and then 
life imprisonment. Among learned men everywhere he was 
held in high esteem. 

Thomas MacDonagh was a man of letters, known favorably by 
the critics of the British Empire. 

"I am a Gael," he wrote. "My race has refused to yield even 
to defeat, and emerges strong today, full of hope and of love, with 
new strength in its arms to work its new destiny, with a new song 
on its lips, and the words of a new language still calling from age 
to age ; which is the ancient language." 

Ceannt and Joseph Plunkett had attracted attention in the arts. 

Madame Markievicz was favorably known from Montmarte to 
the Latin Quarter in Paris for her versatility and her scholarship. 

Pearse was the most accomplished of the Gaelic students. He 
was one of Ireland's greatest educators and at St. Enda's he 
taught a spiritual patriotism and a love for the old Ireland that 
placed him in the front rank of learned men. 

In a paper contributed to the Irish Review he sketched his 
views of what a school should be. He wrote : "A school in fact, 
according to the conception of our wise ancestors, was less a 
place than a person ; a teacher with a little group of pupils clus- 
tering around him. Its place might be poor, nay, it might have 
no local habitation at all, it might be peripatetic — where the 
Master went, the disciples followed. One may think of our Lord 
and His friends as a sort of school ; was He not the Master, and 
were not they the disciples? That gracious conception was not 
only the conception of the old Gael, Pagan and Christian, but it 
was the conception of Europe all through the middle ages. . . . 
The modern child is coming to regard his teacher as an official 
paid by the state to render him certain services ; services which 
it is his interest to avail himself of, since, by so doing, he will 
increase his earning capacity later on ; but services the rendering 
and acceptance of which no more imply a sacred relationship than 
do the rendering and accepting of the services of a dentist and 



68 The Irish Republic 

chiropodist. . . . Against this trend I would oppose the ideal 
of those who shaped the Gaelic polity nearly 2,000 years ago. 
. . , The old Irish system. Pagan and Christian, possessed in 
pre-eminent degree the thing most needful in education — an ade- 
quate inspiration. Columcille suggested what that inspiration 
was when he said: 'If I die, it shall be from the excess of love 
that I bear the Gael.' A love and a service so excessive as to an- 
nihilate all thought of self, a recognition that one must give all, 
must be willing always to make the ultimate sacrifice — this is the 
inspiration alike of the story of Cuchulain and of the story of 
Columcille, the inspiration that made the one a hero and the other 
a saint." 

De Valera ranked among the foremost mathematicians of the 
world and was known in all of the schools, colleges and uni- 
versities for his wide learning. "You have but one life to live and 
one death to die," he said to his soldiers. "See that you do both 
like men." 

Connolly, who had spent the greater part of his life in Scot- 
land, where he had become identified with the labor movement, 
has contributed many books of merit on sociological, political and 
distinctively labor questions. His best known work is Labor in 
Irish History. A companion volume is The Reconquest of Ire- 
land. 

Desmond Fitzgerald was a man of broad scholarship and bet- 
ter known among the literati of England, where he passed most 
of his life. 

Darrell Figgis was attracting attention in literary circles the 
world over. In fact, none of the leaders in the insurrection could 
be put down as mercenaries or traitors, as' we understand the 
word. Psychologically, they may have thought to themselves they 
had reached the highest plane of spiritualized patriotism and love 
of country. 

Pearse, on April 28, realizing that the game was up and 
that i)resently he would be facing the firing squad, wrote in his 
bulletin : "I am satisfied we have saved Ireland's honor." ' - 



73 

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69 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE EXECUTIONS 



THE Government, four days after the surrender of the Easter 
leaders, put the firing squad to work. On May 3 an official 
announcement stated : "Three signatories of the notice proclaim- 
ing the Irish Rei)ublic, P. H. Pearse, P. MacDonagh, and T. J- 
Clarke, have been tried by field court-martial and sentenced to 
death. The sentence having been duly confirmed, the three above 
mentioned men were shot this morning." 

Says Wells: "That brief announcement may be said to have 
begun the great revulsion of Irish national feeling which subse- 
quently swept over the whole country and went far towards secur- 
ing in their death the object which the leaders of the rebellion 
had failed to secure in their lives. It was not so much the fact of 
the executions as the manner of them and their announcement 
which shocked a considerable section of the Irish public. Had 
the rebel leaders been tried in public, even by a military court ; had 
it been possible to tr}' them all while the tragic events of the 
rebellion were fresh in the public mind ; had their association with 
Ciermany and the extreme gravity of their action in relation to 
the European war been clearly stated and brought home to 
the Irish people, which, if the sacrifice of soldiers on the battle- 
fields of Europe be a test, had unmistakably proved where lay 
its sympathies in the war — had such a course been followed, the 
executions, while they might still have been criticised, would prob- 
ably not have produced so profound a stir among peacable Nation- 
alists. It was the bald announcement of the executions, follow- 
ing upon the complete secrecy which invests the proceedings of 
'drumhead' courts-martial, with no statement whatever of the 
degree of guilt which justified the infliction of the capital penalty, 
that aroused national sentiment. 

"The effects of the executions moreover, were cumulative. 
Day by day, as the rebellion itself receded more and more into 
memory, day by day the tale of executions was told piecemeal. 

"The mood of nationalist sentiment was expressed by Mr. 
James Stephens in the lines : 

And day by day they told that one luas dead, 
And day by day the seasons mourned for you 
Until that count of woe was finished, 
And Spring remembered all was yet to do. 



70 The Irish Republic 

"On Thursday, May 4, a curt official notice announced the 
executions of Joseph Plunkett, Edmund Daly, Michael Hanra • 
han, and William Pearse. On Friday, May 5, followed the an- 
nouncement of the execution of John MacBride. On Saturday, 
May 6, it was announced that Constance Cieorgina Markievicz 
and Henry O'Hanrahan had been sentenced to death, but that the 
sentence had been commuted to penal servitude for life by the 
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief. In numerous cases. Sir 
John Maxwell exercised clemency in commuting death sentences 
to varying terms of penal servitude, and in remitting portions of 
sentences of penal servitude; but the daily list of executions in 
the eyes of the growing mass of nationalist opinion quite offset 
the effects of this clemency. On Monday, May 8, came the an- 
nouncement of the executions of Cornelius Colbert, Edmund 
Kent, Michael Mallin and J. J. Heuston. Three of these were 
quite unknown names and the notice added that they 'took a very 
prominent part in the rebellion.' 

"On Wednesday, May 10. the execution of Thomas Kent was 
announced, and in this case it was specifically stated that his 
offense was the murder of a police constable in the affray near 
Fermoy. It was not until Thursday, May 11, however, that there 
was added to a further list of the result of trials by court-martial 
a notice in the following terms: 

" 'In view of the gravity of the rebellion, and its connection 
with German intrigue and propaganda, and in view of the great 
loss of life and property resulting therefrom, the General Officer 
Commanding-in-Chief has found it imperative to inflict the most 
severe penalties on the known organizers of this detestable rising 
and on those commanders who took an active part in the actual 
fighting which occurred. It is hoped that these examples will 
be sufficient to act as a deterrent to intriguers, and to bring home 
to them that the murder of His Majesty's liege subjects, or other 
acts calculated to imperil the safety of the realm, will not be 
tolerated.' 

"There followed almost immediately the announcement of the 
two final executions, those of James Connolly, whose execution 
had been delayed by his wound, and MacDermot. 

"Among other leaders dealt with by secret court-martial sen- 
tences amounting in the aggregate to several hundred years of im- 
prisonment were passed. The rank and file taken in the fighting 
were lodged temporarily in Dublin barracks. 

"Meanwhile the process of arresting 'suspects' was in active 
operation everywhere throughout the country. Some 3,000 per- 
sons, apart from those who were being dealt with by court- 



The Irish Republic 71 

martial, were finally deported to England. In the course of this 
l)rocess a not inconsiderable number of men perfectly innocent of 
any connection with the rising, including even a couple of Orange- 
men, were arrested. In the haste and confusion of the moment 
mistakes of this kind could scarcely be avoidable; though they 
served to add fuel to the fire of resentment against the regime of 
martial law. Perhaps the most potent cause of unrest, however, 
were the reports which simultaneously began to circulate that dvir- 
ing the military operations in Dublin, a number of peaceful citi- 
zens had been deliberately shot without cause by the troops. There 
was, unhappily, a certain measure of solid and incontrovertible 
foundation for these reports. 

"During the rebellion, three men, Francis Sheehy-Skeftington, 
an ardent pacifist, who was actually on his way to use his influence 
to put a stop to looting; Mclntyre, the editor of an anti-Larkinite 
paper; and Dixon, the editor of a weekly publication called the 
Eye-Opener, were arrested and taken to Portobello barracks. 
None of them had the smallest sympathy or connection with the 
rebellion; but all of them, without any form of trial whatever, 
were shot at the barracks by order of Captain J. C. Bowen-Colt- 
hurst, an (English) officer who was subsequently tried by court- 
martial, and found to be of unsound mind. Other cases of the 
shooting of innocent persons did undoubtedly occur; but they 
were explained, if not excused, by the nature of the fighting. . . . 

"From all these causes. Sir John Maxwell's administration of 
Ireland under martial law became in the eyes of a great mass 
of Nationalists utterly detestable. That old suspicion and dislike 
of the British army which the war seemed to have destroyed gained 
a new lease of bitter life. There occurred a profound reaction of 
National sentiment. The rebel leaders, without any wide public 
influence in their lives, became in their death popular heroes and 
martyrs. Martial law, wildly welcomed at the outset as a guar- 
antee of public security, became identified with odious memories 
of regimes of 'coercion' which had been fading into the forgotten 
backgrounds of Irish history. Badges of the Republican colours 
were everj'where openly worn about the streets of Dublin. 
Throughout the country a wave of emotion swept great numbers 
of Nationalists into the Republican camp. The whole basis of the 
constitutional Home Rule movement seemed in imminent danger 
of being undermined. The origins of the most formidable physi- 
cal force movement in Irish history seemed to be in process of 
being laid in the ruins of the rebellion. 

"The aggregate of persons deported was about 3,000. Some 
of the cases were cjuickly dealt with, and the men released after 



72 The Irish Republic 

a short detention. Finally about 2,000 prisoners reached the 
Frongoch internment camp in North Wales. Of these, about sev- 
enty j)er cent were set free three months later on the recom- 
mendation of an advisory committee. Meanwhile, the public had 
taken good care of the families of the rebels ; two separate funds 
started for this purpose collected within two months a sum of 
eleven thousand pounds. . . . 

"Evidence of the breakdown of the existing machinery of Irish 
government was visible in the heart of Dublin, which wore the 
appearance of a war-swept town in Flanders. Nor was the strength 
and depth of the desire of all parties in Ireland for a settlement 
open to question. There hung on the walls of Dublin and other 
Irish towns a recruiting poster, the first lines of which displayed 
in bold type these words : 'The curse of War — What it means 
— Keep it from Ireland's Fields and Towns.' Some of these 
posters in Dublin now hung in mockery scored with bullet holes. 
The curse of war had come upon Ireland, and the citizens of 
Dublin, at least, knew only two well what war meant. They had 
heard in their streets the rattle of musketry, the vicious knocking 
of machine guns, the boom of artillery, the screech and deafening- 
explosion of shells. They had seen their dead lying in streets lit 
up by the glare of infernal conflagrations." 




Clarke, MacDonagh and MacBride 
macdonagh and clarke were signatories to the proclama- 
tion of the irish republic. macbride was second in 
command of the forces. he fought against the british 
in the south african war. 



73 



CHAPTER XV 



AN EYE FOR AN EYE 



TIE judicial mind in England dismissed the executions as 
"severe but just." There can be no complaint of this atti- 
tude, for British jurisprudence is exactly that, an eye for an eye 
and a tooth for a tooth. It is as much their philosophy of life as 
it is for the Quaker to exclaim, "Forgive them, for they know not 
what they do !" 

The English attitude embalms a Portia in literature but never 
puts her in wig and gown and commits to her the scales of blind- 
folded and sometimes blind justice. 

The rule comes down through the centuries, even from the 
ancient king who did not hesitate to chop off the heads of a few 
wives, and mark the spot with a tablet, in liberalizing Christianity 
to the extent of condoning libertinism in the royal palaces. We 
cannot appropriate to ourselves the justification of inherited ten- 
dencies to rebel against kings and not concede to the Briton the 
inherited tendency to insist on stern justice and to bless it w'ith 
a text. They did as much to Nathan Hale. 

But that part of Ireland that looks to Dublin, even sentiment- 
ally, as its capital, instead of Westminster, was now in disgrace. 
It could not set forth its justification, even if it would, as England 
controlled the cables and the censers. It is doubtful if the nations 
allied with England cared for an explanation. They saw only the 
external act and said England did right. They did not care for 
specious philosophizing or homilies on the Sermon on the Mount. 
Dublin's Ireland was a traitor and that was enough. To the 
quicklime with the insurrectionists ! 

And so "free Ireland," in sorrow but not in tears, returned 
to its cottage and its hedgerow to immortalize the Easter Week 
"martyrs" in new lyrics and ballads and obelisks, and there abide 
against Another Day. 

In the first resentment toward the insurrectionists that swept 
over the North, partition was proclaimed again as the only think- 
able solution, that Ulster was done forever with the Dublin 
"rebels." And the British government, enraged that the Empire 
shouUl ha\e been endangered, said likewise. While Easter Week 
further rooted the seeds of republicanism in the island, it also 
rooted the British ruling classes against any form of self-govern- 
ment for Ireland that was not acceptable to Ulster. Partition be- 
came the watchword. 



74 



CHAPTER XVI 



PARTITION 



PARTITION to real Irishmen would be like splitting the 
chalices on their altars, or wrenching an arm from the Venus 
de Milo in the presence of her creator. 

Let us apply the wisdom of Solomon with the mother and 
babe. The real Ireland — the Ireland of the fathers, which in its 
warm heart had an almost supernatural atifection for the green 
sod; the Ireland which could have peace after seven centuries of 
superhuman endurance and suffering, both of its flesh and its 
pride, would it part with a small corner of the holy earth — this 
Ireland of the traditions is yet firm to endure still another cycle 
rather than recover its own with mutilation of the physical thing. 

Which is the true Ireland? Which has the ineffable essence of 
l)ure patriotism? Which has the love that is undefiled and en- 
during as the eternal hills, even as the love of the mother for its 
own flesh and blood? Which walks on streets of gold though it 
be a bog? Which, King Solomon, are the real people — they who 
would hack off their corner of the Emerald Isle, a corner garnered 
at first by brigandage and theft, and take it across the sea to Eng- 
land, or they who still would sweat in humiliation and horror lest 
so ghastly a thing be done ? 

Might you as well turn the sepulchre in the land of Moab into 
a huckster's shop, or put the leaden image of a Nero on the 
Hill of Tara. 

The soul of the real Ireland clothes it in a robe of divinity. 

Ireland! It is the very Ark of the Covenant. Every foot of 
it holds something that would strike the scoffer dead in his 
tracks did he profane it beyond endurance. Such is love of coun- 
try. 

Alas ! It is, we fear, too subtle for pheasant-chasing linen drap- 
ers and plover-stuffed ship makers — for vergers who thank Je- 
hovah they are not as other men are. 

Let us examine the partition proposal of Mr. Carson and his 
aids a little farther. Substantially, all Catholics in Ireland are 
Home Rulers or Sinn Feiners. They are solidly against parti- 
tion. A considerable number of the Covenanters and persons of 
no announced religious preference are Home Rulers or Sinn 
Feiners, so that the Catholic population does not represent the 



The Irish Republic 75 

full strength of these opposed to partition, as well as in favor 
either of Home Rule or complete separation. 

There are in what is known as the province of Ulster nine 
counties, the province Mr. Carson says should be allowed to sep- 
arate itself from Ireland and become an appanage of the Crown. 
In these nine counties the Covenanters — Carsonites — are in the 
majority in only four counties. They are the counties of Ant- 
rim, Armagh, Down and Londonderry. Their majority in Ant- 
rim is 29.5 per cent of the population; in Armagh, 5.67 per cent; 
in Down, 18.44 per cent; and in Londonderry, 8.46 per cent. In 
all the other five counties of the province of Ulster they are in 
the minority, and in all the other twenty-eight counties of Ireland 
they are a negligible quantity. And yet these four counties of 
Covenanters, led by Mr. Carson, have more influence at London 
than all the other twenty-eight counties of Ireland put together. 
On a question of what sort of government the people would like 
to try the twenty-eight counties are disfranchised by the English 
government in deference to Mr. Carson. The government solemn- 
ly announces it will not "coerce Ulster" — four counties — but will 
use the full strength of the military' forces to coerce the twenty- 
eight counties, in most of which the public will virtually is unan- 
imous. 

It is as if four states in the United States were strong enough 
at Washington to prescribe the sort of government all the other 
states in the Union should come under. 

The last official census of religious professions in Ireland was 
taken in 1911. Since then the Catholic and self-government 
forces have been increasing rapidly, have been creeping up on 
the Ulster stronghold, so much so that in the last election — De- 
cember 14, 1918 — they carried one seat in Londonderry town 
itself, the very heart center of the Covenanters. 

Eliminating the rapidly increasing self-government population 
and the decreasing Unionist strength of the last eight years, and 
employing the figures of 1911, showing total population and relig- 
ious preferences, we are afforded a striking situation which will 
shed a great deal of light on the question if the figures are read 
intelligently and without prejudice. They are : 

Covenanters Per- 

Perccnt- and cent- 

COUNTIES— Catholic age All Others age 

Carlow 32,317 89.15 3,935 10.85 

Dublin 122.372 70.99 50,022 29.01 

(Dublin County Borough) . . . .253,370 83.13 51,432 16.87 

Kildare '. . . . . 54,684 82.07 11,943 17.93 



76 The Irish Republic 

Kilkenny 71,193 94.97 3,769 5.03 

Kings 51 ,178 90.05 5,654 9.95 

Longford 40,297 91.96 3,523 8.04 

Louth 58,303 91.58 5,362 8.42 

Meath . 60,660 93.19 4,431 6.81 

Queen's 48,480 88.74 6,149 11.26 

Westmeath 54,779 91.32 5,207 8.68 

Wexford 94,4r3 92.31 7,860 7.69 

Wicklow 47,999 79.06 12,712 20.94 

Province of Connaught — 

Galway 177,920 97.64 4,304 2.36 

Leitrim V 58,159 91.47 5,423 8.53 

Mayo ; 188,069 97.86 4,108 2.14 

Roscommon 91,731 97.63 2,225 2.37 

Sligo ......72.125 91.24 6,920 8.76 

Proi'ince of Munster — 

Clare 102,300 98.14 1,932 1.86 

Cork (County) 288,455 91.45 26,986 8.55 

Cork (County Borough) 67,814 88.44 8,859 11.56 

Kerry 155,322 97.26 4,369 2.74 

Limerick (County) 101,502 97.08 3,049 2.92 

Limerick (Borough) 34,865 90.52 3,653 9.48 

Tipperary 144.1 56 94.57 8,277 5.43 

Waterford (County) 54,060 95.68 2,442 4.32 

Waterford (Borough) 25,331 92.23 2,133 7.77 

Proz'ince of Ulster — 

Antrim 39,751 20.50 154.113 79.50 

Armagh 54,526 45.33 65,765 55.67 

Belfast (Borough) 03,243 24.10 293,704 75.90 

Cavan 74,271 81.46 16,902 18.54 

Donegal 133,021 78.93 35,516 21.07 

Down 64,485 31.56 139,818 68.44 

Fermanagh 34,740 56.18 27.096 43.82 

Londonderry 41,478 41.54 58,367 58.46 

Londonderry (Borough) .... 22,923 56.21 17,857 43.79 

Monaghan 53,363 74.68 18,092 25.32 

Tyrone 79.015 55.39 63,650 44.61 

In the constitutional convention of 1917-18, the Catholics in- 
sisted that a provision be written clearly that would absolutely 
protect the Covenanters of Ulster in the full enjoyment of relig- 
ious freedom. 



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// 



CHAPTER XVIP' 



THE! MOVING WHY THEY DID IT 

WHAT was the philosophy of Easter Week? The same in 
)rinciple as the philosophy of the Poles and Czechs. Any 
nation or combination of nations opposed to their oppressors was 
their friend. 

Poland pleaded with Napoleon to rescue her from her un- 
happy plight. They strewed the streets with roses when he came to 
Warsaw. One of Poland's fairest daughters flung herself at his feet 
and ofifered him her very soul if he would give the word and call 
Poland back to her proud eminence. Napoleon had other fish to 
fry. All Poland got out of the Corsican was an illegitimate son. 

Poland was not even a physical thing in 1916. There had 
been no Poland for many years. Three royal autocrats — rulers 
by divine right — long since had stolen and partitioned that choice 
piece of the earth's surface, just as divine right, and later Crom- 
wellian rogues had stolen, plundered and exploited the land in 
Ireland, because they were powerful enough to do it. It was the 
desire for land and revenue that took the English kings to Ireland 
just as it was the lust for land and revenue that took the Prus- 
sian, the Austrian and the Russian monarchs to Poland. Henry 
II, Henry VIII, James I, Elizabeth and their successors were 
not inter^ted in giving Ireland a decent government. They 
wanted Ireland's fertile acres, but in both cases — Ireland and 
Poland — there was one thing that could not be stolen or purchased 
— their soul. So it was that, in the war of American Independ- 
ence, the Kosciuskos and Pulaskis were fighting side by side with 
Irish emigrants under George Washington's ensign. Both Pole 
and Irishman hated kings and emperors and all the unholy and 
wicked things they stood for. 

Had Germany and the United States been fighting England 
and France, say, the Poles in Germany potentially would have 
been against the United States. It is the natural law. They 
would have been at heart for any nation that threatened the sta- 
bility of their oppressors, just as the liberty-loving Czechs would 
have sympathized with any nation that threatened the Hapsburg 
dynasty. For plotting against their oppressors, and thereby tech- 
nically committing treason against the de facto government, the 
Poles and Czechs are highly honored, which, in the circumstances, 
meets with our full and enthusiastic approval. But Easter Week 
Ireland, actuated by the same fundamental outlook, is condemned 



78 The Irish Republic 

and traduced unmercifully. It should be noted, too, that the 
Easter rising came before the United States entered the war. 

In the hearts of the leaders of the Easter afitair there was 
even more profound hatred of all things British than there was, 
if possible, hatred of the HohenzoUerns and Hapsburgs on the 
part of the Poles and Czechs. 

It was not on Ireland's recommendation that the United States 
became the ally of England. It was one of those throws of 
Fate's dice in which Ireland was not consulted; and however 
much the peoples of the countries of the Allies may condemn the 
men responsible for the Easter afifair, it seems only fair to them 
to record that their vision did not extend beyond Ireland's shores 
— that they were acting on what they believed were the noblest 
of motives, and on the program laid down by their rebellious 
ancestors for generations, to hit England when she was in trou- 
ble elsewhere. 

Father O'Flannagan, the apotheosis of philosophic Sinn Fein- 
ism, has expressed the mental attitude of the Easter Week lead- 
ers in a compressed simile. He said that when the mouse, with 
the cat's paw on its neck, saw a hghting terrier come around the 
corner, the mouse became pro-dog ! 

It is probable that the Easter Week leaders would have taken 
help from any people in the world who would have tendered it, 
regardless of how they were aligned on the world war. Whatever 
advantage Germany took of this attitude, or attempted so to do 
before the United States came in, was the same advantage, in prin- 
ciple, the United States and the Allies later exploited with the 
Poles and Czechs, by the organization of an extensive propa- 
ganda in enemy countries. 

The Easter Week leaders represented a small part of the Irish 
people at that time. It was not until after the conscription act 
and the deportations, two years later, that three-fourths of Ire- 
land went over to the "trustees of the blood" of the martyrs of 
Easter Week. 

It has been charged that the Easter rising leaders stabbed 
England in the back. Their associates refute this. They cor- 
rect the misapprehension by stating they stabbed England in the 
face ! It was the advice Grattan, Emmet, O'Connell and Parnell 
had bequeathed to them — England's difficulty will be Ireland's 
opportunity ! 

We, in America, may feel that the Easter Week forces acted 
on bad advice, and immeasurably injured Ireland's cause before 
the world. We may, however, be able to dissociate ourselves 
from the purely utilitarian aspect and view the episode as an ab- 



The Irish Republic 79 

straction. If we do that, we may understand why they did it, 
though we do not approve of the doing itself. Might we forgive 
them on the ground that they didn't fully comprehend what they 
were doing; that, in their enormous hatred of Britain, they mis- 
took the mirage for the expedient moment? 



A dream ! A dream ! an ancient dream ! 

Yet ere peace come to Innisfail, 
Some weapons on some field must gleam, 

Some burning glory fire the Gael. 

That field may lie beneath the sun, 
Fair for the treading of an host: 

That field in realms of thought be won, 
And armed hands to their uttermost. 

Some way, to faithful Innisfail, 
Shall come the majesty and awe 

Of martial truth that must prevail 
To lay on all the eternal law. 

— Lionel Johnson. 



80 



CHAPTER XVIII 



THE UNITED STATES COMES IN 



LESS than twelve months after the Easter rising the United 
States came into the war. Mr. Balfour, the British Secre- 
tary for Foreign Affairs, came to the United States and was the 
guest of President Wilson. He addressed the United States 
Senate. He visited Washington's tomb, and went home. It is 
assumed that from high official sources, while in America, he 
gathered the idea that it would be wise to attempt a settlement 
of the Irish question immediately, not so much for the sake of 
the physical island of Ireland itself, as for the sake of bringing 
the English-speaking peoples of the world together. There are 
some 20,000,000 American citizens in the United States of Irish 
descent. There is a considerable population of Irish descent in 
Australia. There are Irishmen in South Africa and in India and 
in Egypt, besides the Irishmen in England, in Scotland, in Wales 
and in Ireland. It was conceived to be in the nature of a war 
measure, in fact, to see to it if something could not be done 
to remove the Irish question from the politics of the world, and 
bring all the English-speaking allies opposed to Germany to- 
gether in a solid organization, not only for the prosecution of 
the war, but for the great benefits that would follow after the 
war. In any event, soon after Mr. Balfour's return to England, 
the wheels were set in motion and an effort made to sound out 
the Irish leaders as to whether the time was propitious for an- 
other effort at settlement. Mr. Lloyd George consulted with 
Mr. Redmond, leader of the Nationalists, and submitted to him 
the alternative proposition ; Home Rule by conceding the parti- 
tion of Ireland, and the setting of Ulster off to one side, or a 
convention of Irish leaders in Ireland to discover whether they 
could agree among themselves. Mr. Redmond promptly rejected 
the partition plan, and accepted the convention plan. There- 
upon, the convention machinery was set up, and there was about 
to be carried to fruition what the world has despaired of behold- 
ing, namely. Irishmen themselves agreeing at home what sort of 
government they wanted. It is true that the Ulster members of 
that convention announced and maintained the mental reserva- 
tion to non-concur in any report the convention might make in 
the end, regardless of what their attitude might be in the sittings 
of the several sessions. 

It should be kept in mind that when the convention was set 



2 ^ 

o r" 




The Irish Republic 81 

up, Ireland was given to understand, and the world so under- 
stood it, that if the convention "substantially agreed" the crown 
stood pledged to carry out that agreement by immediate legisla- 
tion in the Imperial Parliament. In this connection it is of his- 
t(^rical value to reproduce the letter of Mr. David Lloyd George, 
the English Premier, to Sir Horace Plunkett, chairman of the 
Irish convention, under date of February 25, 1918. 

10 Downing Street, 
London, S. W., 
25th February, 1918. 
Dear Sir Horace Plunkett : 

I had the ])rivilege of discussing, during the last three weeks, 
the situation in the. Irish convention with the delegates whom the 
convention ap])ointed to confer with the government. You will 
allow me to thank the convention for sending over a delegation 
so representative of all groups of opinion within the convention. 
The government have hereby been enabled to learn the views of 
different parties, and to appreciate better than would otherwise 
have been possible the position that has now been reached within 
the convention. I regret that the urgency of questions vital to the 
immediate conduct of the war has protracted the meetings with 
various groups longer than it was hoped would be necessary, but 
I am confident the convention will recognize the exceptional cir- 
cumstances of the time and will understand there has been no 
avoidable delay. 

The conclusions to which the government have come as a 
result of their interviews with the representatives of the conven- 
tion, may be stated as follows : 

The government are determined that, so far as is in their 
power, the labours of the convention shall not be in vain. On 
receiving the report of the convention, the government will give 
it immediate attention, and will proceed with the least possible 
delay to submit legislative proposals to Parliament. They wish, 
however, to emphasize the urgent im{)ortance of getting a settle- 
ment in and through the convention. The convention has been 
brought together to endeavor to find a settlement by consent. If 
the convention fails to secure this, the settlement of the question 
will be much more difficult, but it will be a task incumbent on the 
government. It is, therefore, of the highest importance both for 
the present situation and for future good relations in and with 
Ireland that the settlement should come from an Irish assembly, 
and from mutual agreement among all parties. To secure this, 
there must be concessions on all sides. It has been so in every 



82 The Irish Republic 

convention, from that of the U. S. A., to that of South Africa. 

There is, however, a further consideration which has an im- 
portant bearing on the possibihties of the present situation. Dur- 
ing the period of the war, it is necessary to proceed as far as pos- 
sible by agreement. Questions on which there is an acute dif- 
ference of opinion in Ireland or in Great Britain must be held 
over for determination after the war. At the same time, it is 
clear to the government, in view of previous attempts at settle- 
ment, and of the deliberations of the convention itself, that the 
only hope of agreement lies in a solution which, on the one side, 
provides for the unity of Ireland under a single legislature with 
adequate safeguards for the interests of Ulster and the Southern 
Unionists, and, on the other, preserves the well-being of the Em- 
pire and the fundamental unity of the United Kingdom. 

It is evident that there is, on the part of all parties in the con- 
vention, a willingness to provide for and safeguard the interests 
of the Empire and of the United Kingdom. A settlement can 
now be reached which will reserve by common consent to the 
Imperial Parliament its suzerainty, and its control of Army, 
Navy and Foreign Policy and other Imperial services, while pro- 
viding for Irish representation at Westminster, and for a proper 
contribution from Ireland to Imperial expenditure. All these 
matters are now capable of being settled within the convention on 
a basis satisfactory both to the Imperial government and to Ire- 
land. 

There remains, however, the difficult question of customs 
and excise. The government arc aware of the serious objections 
which can be raised against the transfer of these services to an 
Irish Legislature. It would be practically impossible to make 
such a disturbance of the fiscal and financial relations of Great 
Britain and Ireland in the midst of a great war. It might also 
be incompatible with that federal reorganization of the United 
Kingdom in favour of which there is a growing body of opinion. 
On the other hand, the government recognize the strong claim 
that can be made that an Irish Legislature should have som.e con- 
trol over indirect taxation as the only form of taxation which 
touches the great majority of the people, and which in the past 
has represented the greater part of Irish revenue. 

The government feel that this is a matter which cannot 
be finally settled at the present time. They therefore suggest 
for the consideration of the convention that, during the period 
of the war and for a period of two years thereafter, the control 
of customs and excise should be reserved to the LTnited Kingdom 
Parliament; that, as soon as possible after the Irish Parliament 



The Irish Republic 83 

has been established, a Joint Exchequer Board should be set up 
to secure the determination of the true revenue of Ireland — a 
provision which is essential to a system of responsible Irish Gov- 
ernment, and to the making of a national balance sheet, and that, 
at the end of the war. a Royal Commission should be established 
to re-examine impartially and thoroughly the financial relations 
of Great Britain and Ireland, to report on the contribution of 
Ireland to Imperial expenditure, and to submit proposals as to 
the best means of adjusting the economic and fiscal relations of 
the two countries. 

The government consider that, during the period of the war, 
the control of all taxation other than customs and excise could 
be handed over to the Irish Parliament; that, for the period of 
the war and two j^ears thereafter an agreed proportion of the 
annual Imperial expenditure should be fixed as the Irish contri- 
bution ; and that all Irish revenue from customs and excise, as 
determined by the Joint Exchequer Board, after deduction of the 
agreed Irish contribution to Imperial expenditure, should be paid 
into the Irish Exchequer. For administrative reasons, during the 
period of the war, it is necessary that the police should remain 
under Imperial control, and it seems to the government to be 
desirable that, for the same period, the postal service should be 
a reserved service. 

Turning to the other essential element of a settlement — the se- 
curing of an agreement to establish a single Legislature for an 
united Ireland — the government believe that the convention has 
given much thought to the method of overcoming objection on the 
part of the Unionists, North and South, to this proposal. They 
understand that one scheme provides for additional representa- 
tion by means of nomination or election. They understand fur- 
ther that it has also been suggested that a safeguard of Ulster in- 
terests might be secured by the provision of an Ulster Commit- 
tee within the Irish Parliament, with power to modify and if 
necessary to exclude, the application to Ulster of certain measures 
either of Legislation or Administration, which are not consonant 
with the interests of Ulster. This appears to be a workable ex- 
pedient, whereby special consideration of Ulster conditions can 
be secured, and the objections to a single Legislature for Ire- 
land overcome. 

The government would also point to the fact that it has been 
proposed that the Irish Parliament should meet in alternate ses- 
sions at Dublin and Belfast, and that the principal offices of an 
Irish Department of Manufacturing Industry and Commerce 
should be located in Belfast. They believe that the willingness 



84 The Irish Republic 

to discuss these suggestions is clear evidence of the desire to con- 
sider any expedient which may help to remove the causes of Irish 
disunion. The fact that, in order to meet the claims of different 
parts of the community, the South African Convention decided 
that the Legislature was to be established in Cape Town, the Ad- 
ministrative Departments to be situated in Pretoria, and the 
Supreme Court was to sit in Bloemfontein, is a proof that pro- 
posals such as these may markedly contribute to eventual agree- 
ment. 

Finally, the government have noted the very important report 
which has been prepared on the subject of land purchase, and on 
which an unanimous conclusion has been reached by the Commit- 
tee of the Convention set 'up to consider this subject. If this re- 
port commends itself to the convention, the government would 
be prepared to introduce in Parliament as part of the j)lan of set- 
tlemnt (and simultaneously ivith the BUI amending the Goz'ern- 
ment of Ireland Act, 1914), a measure for the purpose of enabling 
Parliament to give effect to the recommendations of the conven- 
tion on the subject of land purchase. The government have also 
had submitted to them by the Labour representatives in the con- 
vention, the need of provision for dealing with the urgent ques- 
tion of housing in Ireland, and on receiving recommendations 
from the convention on the subject, they would be prepared to 
consider the inclusion in the scheme of settlement of a substantial 
provision for immediately dealing with this vital problem. 

There thus seems to be within the reach of the convention the 
possibility of obtaining a settlement which will lay the foundation 
of a new era in the government both of Ireland and of Great 
Britain. It is a settlement which will give to Irishmen the con- 
trol of their own affairs, while preserving the fundamental unity 
of the United Kingdom, and enabling Irishmen to work for tlie 
good of the Empire, as well as for the good of Ireland. With all 
the earnestness in their power, the government appeal to the mem- 
bers of the convention to agree upon a scheme which can be car- 
ried out at once, and which will go a long way towards realizing 
the hopes of Irishmen all over the world, without prejudice to the 
future consideration of questions on which at present agreement 
cannot be attained in Ireland, and which are also intimately con- 
nected with constitutional problems affecting every part of the 
United Kingdom, the consideration of which must be postponed 
until the end of the present war. This is an opportunity for a 
settlement by consent that may never recur, and w^hich. If it is 
allowed to pass, must inevitably entail consequences for which no 
man can wish to make himself responsible. 

Yours sincerely, 

D. Lloyd George. 



o c 

c 
9 H 

Z 

1^ g 




The Irish Republic 85 

The convention shortly thereafter adjourned and forwarded 
its report to London. By the terms of that re{)ort the conven- 
tion did "substantially agree." The letter of the chairman, Sir 
Horace Plunkett, accompanying the report and made a part of 
the report of the convention, was as follows: 

LETTER OF TRANSMISSION FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE IRISH CON- 
TION TO THE PRIME MINISTER 

The Right Honorable D. L.loyd George, M. P., 
Prime Minister, 

10 Downing Street, London. 

Sir: — I have the honour to transmit herewith the report of the 
proceedings of the Irish convention. 

For the immediate object of the government, the report tells 
all that needs to be told ; it shows that in the convention, whilst it 
was not found possible to overcome the objections of the Ulster 
Unionists, a majority of Nationalists, all the Southern Unionists, 
and five out of the seven Labour representatives were agreed that 
the scheme of Irish self-government set out in paragraph 42 of 
the report should be immediately passed into law. A minority 
of Nationalists propose a scheme which differs in only one im- 
portant particular from that of the majority. The convention 
has, therefore, laid a foundation of Irish agreement unprece- 
dented in history. 

I recognize that action in Parliament upon the result of our 
deliberations must largely depend upon public opinion. Without 
a knowledge of the circumstances which, at the termination of 
our proceedings, compelled us to adopt an unusual method of 
presenting the results of our deliberations, the public might be 
misled as to what has actually been achieved. It is, therefore, 
necessary to explain our procedure. 

We have every reason to believe that the government contem- 
plated immediate legislation upon the results of our labours. The 
work of an Irish settlement, suspended at the outbreak of the 
war, is now felt to admit of no further postponement. In the 
Dominions and in the LTnited States, as well as in other allied 
countries, the unsettled Irish Question is a disturbing factor, both 
m regard to war eft'ort and peace aims. Nevertheless, urgent as 
our task was, we could not complete it until every possibility of 
agreement had been explored. The moment this point was 
reached — and you will not be surprised that it took us eight 
months to reach it — we decided to issue our report with the least 
possible delay. To do this, we had to avoid further controversy 
and protracted debate. I was, therefore, on March twenty-second, 



86 The Irish Republic 

instructed to draft a report which should be a mere narrative of 
the convention's proceedings, with a statement, for the informa- 
tion of the government, of the conckisions adopted, whether 
unanimously or by majorities. 

It was hoped that this report might be unanimously signed, and 
it was understood that any groups or individuals would be free to 
append to it such statements as they deemed necessary to give 
expression to their views. The draft report was circulated on 
March thirtieth, and discussed and amended on April fourth and 
fifth. The accuracy of the narrative was not challenged, though 
there was considerable difiference of opinion as to the relative 
prominence which should be given to some parts of the proceed- 
ings. As time pressed, it was decided not to have any discussion 
upon a majority report, nor upon any minority reports or other 
statements which might be submitted. The draft report was 
adopted by a majority, and the chairman and secretary were or- 
dered to sign it, and forward it to the government. A limit of 
twenty- four hours was by agreement put upon the reception of 
any other reports or statements, and in the afternoon of April 
fifth, the convention adjourned sine die. 

The public is thus provided with no majority report, in the 
sense of a reasoned statement in favour of the conclusions upon 
which the majority are agreed, but is left to gather from the nar- 
rative of proceedings what the contents of such a report would 
have been. On the other hand, both the Ulster Unionists and a 
minority of the Nationalists have presented minority reports cov- 
ering the whole field of the convention's enquiry. The result of 
this procedure is to minimize the agreement reached, and to em- 
phasize the disagreement. In these circumstances I conceive it 
to be my duty as chairman to submit such explanatory observa- 
tions as are required to enable the reader of the report and the ac- 
companying documents to gain a clear idea of the real effect and 
significance of the convention's achievement. 

I may assume a knowledge of the broad facts of the Irish 
Question. It will be agreed that, of recent years, the greatest ob- 
stacle to its settlement has been the Ulster difficulty. There 
seemed to be two possible issues to our deliberations. If a scheme 
of Irish self-government could be framed to which the Ulster 
Unipnists would give their adherence, then the convention might 
produce a unanimous report. Failing such a consummation, we 
might secure agreement, either complete or substantial, between 
the Nationalist, the Southern Unionist and the Labour representa- 
tives. Many entertained the hope that the efl^ect of such a strik- 
ing and wholly new development would be to induce Ulster to re- 



The Irish Republic 87 

consider its position. 

Perhaps unanimity was too much to expect. Be that as ii 
may, neither time nor effort was spared in striving for that goal, 
and there were moments when its attainment seemed possible. 
There was, however, a portion of Ulster where a majority claimed 
that, if Ireland had the right to separate herself from the rest of 
the United Kingdom, they had the same right to separation from 
the rest of Ireland. But the time had gone by when any other 
section of the Irish people would accejU the partition of their 
country even as a temporary expedient. Hence, the Ulster Union- 
ist members in the convention remained there only in the hope 
that some form of Home Rule would be proposed which might 
modify the determination of those they represented to have 
neither part nor lot in an Irish Parliament. The Nationalists 
strove to win them by concessions; but they found themselves 
unable to accept any of the schemes discussed and the only scheme 
of Irish government they presented to the convention was con- 
fined to the exclusion of their entire Province. 

Long before the hope of complete unanimity had passed the 
majority of the convention were considering the possibilities of 
agreement between the Nationalists and the Southern Unionists. 
Lord Midleton was the first to make a concrete proposal to this 
end. The report shows that in November he outlined to the 
grand committee, and in December brought before the convention 
what looked like a workable compromise. It accepted self-gov- 
ernment for Ireland. In return for special minority representa- 
tion in the Irish Parliament, already conceded by the Nationalists, 
it offered to that Parliament complete power over internal legis- 
lation and administration and, in matters of finance, over direct 
taxation and excise. But, although they agreed that the customs 
revenue should be paid into the Irish exchecjuer, the Southern 
Unionists insisted upon the permanent reservation to the Imperial 
Parliament of the power to fix the rates of customs duties.. By 
far the greater part of our time and attention was occupied,, by 
this one question, whether the imposition of customs duties should 
or should not be under the control of the Irish Parliament. The 
difificulties of the Irish convention may be sumrned up in two 
wor^S — Ulster and customs. 

' ' The Ulster difficulty the whole world knows; but how the 
customs question came to be one of vital principle, upon the deci- 
sion of which depended the amount of agreement that could be' 
reached in the convention, needs to be told. The tendency of 
recent political thought among constitutional Nationalists has been 
towards a form of government resembling as closely as possible 



88 The Irish Republic 

that of the Dominions, and since the geographical position of Ire- 
land imposes obvious restrictions in respect to naval and military 
affairs, the claim for Dominion Home Rule was concentrated 
upon a demand for unrestricted fiscal powers. Without separate 
customs and excise Ireland would, according to this view, fail to 
attain a national status like that enjoyed by the Dominions. 

Upon this issue, the Nationalists made a strong case, and were 
able to prove that a considerable number of leading commercial 
men had come to favour fiscal autonomy as part of an Irish set- 
tlement. In the present state of public opinion in Ireland, it was 
feared that without customs, no scheme the convention recom- 
mended would receive a sufficient measure of popular support to 
secure legislation. To obviate any serious disturbance of the 
trade of the United Kingdom, the Nationalists were prepared to 
agree to a free-trade arrangement between the two countries. But 
this did not overcome the difficulties of the Southern Unionists, 
who on this point agreed with the Ulster Unionists. They were 
apprehensive that a separate system of customs control, however 
guarded, might impair the authority of the United Kingdom over 
its external trade policy. Neither could they consent to any set- 
tlement which was, in their judgment, incompatible with Ireland's 
full participation in a scheme of United Kingdom federation, 
should that come to pass. 

It was clear that by means of mutual concessions agree- 
ment between the Nationalists and the Southern Unionists 
could be reached on all other points. On this important 
point, however, a section of the Nationalists, who have embodied 
their views in a separate report, held that no compromise was 
possible. On the other hand, a majority of the Nationalists and 
the whole body of Southern Unionists felt that nothing effective 
could result from their work in the convention unless some under- 
standing was reached upon customs which would render an agree- 
ment on a complete scheme attainable. Neither side was willing to 
surrender the principle ; but both sides were willing, in order that 
^ Parliament should be at once established, to postpone a legisla- 
tive decision upon the ultimate control of customs and excise. At 
the same time each party has put on record in separate notes sub- 
joined to the report, its claims respecting the final settlement of 
this question. A decision having been reached upon the cardinal 
issue, the majority of the convention carried a series of resolu- 
tions which together form a complete scheme of self-government. 

This scheme provides for the establishment of a Parliament 
for the whole of Ireland, with an Executive responsible to it, and 
with full powers over all internal legislation, administration and 



The Irish Republic 89 

direct taxation. Pending a decision of the fiscal question, it is 
provided that the imposition of duties of customs and excise shall 
remain with the Imperial Parliament, but that the whole of the 
proceeds of these taxes shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer. A 
joint Exchequer Board is to be set up to determine the Irish true 
revenue, and Ireland is to be represented upon the Board of Cus- 
toms and Excise of the United Kingdom. 

The principle of representation in the Imperial Parliament was 
insisted upon from the first by the Southern Unionists, and the 
Nationalists conceded it. It was felt, however, that there were 
strong reasons for providing that the Irish representatives at 
Westminster should be elected by the Irish Parliament rather 
than directly by the constituencies, and this was the arrangement 
adopted. 

It was accepted in principle that there should be an Irish con- 
tribution to the cost of Imperial services, but, owing to lack of 
data, it was not found possible in the convention to fix any definite 
sum. 

It was agreed that the Irish Parliament should consist of two 
Houses — a Senate of sixty-four members, and a House of Com- 
mons of two hundred. The principle underlying the composition 
of the Senate is the representation of Interests. This is effected 
by giving representation of commerce, industry and labour, the 
County Councils, the Churches, learned institutions and the Peer- 
age. In constituting the House of Commons, the Nationalists of- 
fered to guarantee forty per cent of its members to the Unionists. 
It was agreed that, in the South, adequate representation for 
Unionists could only be secured by nomination ; but, as the Ulster 
representatives had informed the convention that those for whom 
they spoke could not accept the principle of nomination, provision 
was made in the scheme for an extra representation of Ulster by 
direct election. 

The majority of the Labour representatives associated them- 
selves with the Nationalists and Southern Unionists in building 
up the constitution, with the provisions of which they found them- 
selves in general agreement. They frankly objected, however, to 
the principle of nomination and to what they regarded as the in- 
adequate representation of Labour in the Upper House. Through- 
out our proceedings they helped in every way towards the at- 
tainment of agreement. Nor did they press their own special 
claims in such a manner as to make more difficult the work, al- 
ready difficult enough, of agreeing upon a constitution. 

I trust I have said enough to enable the reader of this report 
and the accompanying documents to form an accurate judgment 



90 The Irish Republic 

upon the nature and difficulties of the task before the conven- 
tion and upon its final achievement. \\ hile, technically, it was 
our function to draft a constitution for our country, it would , 
be more correct to say that we had to find a wu)' out of the ' 
most complex and anomalous political situation to be found in 
history — I might almost say in fiction. A\'e are living under a sys- 
tem of government which survives only because the act abolishing 
it cannot, consistently with ministerial pledges, be put into opera- ' 
tion without further legislation no less difficult and controversial 
than that which it has to amend. While the responsibility for a 
solution to our problem rests primarily with the government, the 
convention found itself in full accord with your insistence that 
the most hopeful path to a settlement was to be found in Irish 
agreement. In seeking this — in attempting to find a compromise 
which Ireland might accept and Parliament pass into law — it 
has been recognized that the full programme of no party could 
be adopted. The convention was also bound to give due weight 
to your ojiinion that to press for a settlement at Westminster, 
during the war, of the cjuestion which, as I have shown, had 
been a formidable obstacle to agreement, would be to imperil the j 
prospect of the early establishment of self-government in Ire- " 
land. 

Notwithstanding the difficulties with which we were sur- 
rounded a larger measure of agreement has been reached upon the 
principle and details of Irish self-government than has ever yet 
been attained. Is it too much to ho])e that the scheme embodying 
this agreement will forthwith be brought to fruition by those to 
wdiose call the Irish convention has now responded? 

I have the honour to be. 
Sir. 
8th Ai)ril, 1918. Your obedient servant, 

Horace Plunkett. 

In opposition to this statement of Sir Horace Plunkett, the 
delegates in the convention re])resenting Northeast Ulster filed 
a minority report, and to that extent the Ulster delegates, while 
particii)ating in the convention, did not make the agreement 
unanimous. 

Sir Horace Plunkett, addressing the Irish Fellowship Club 
in Chicago, in the spring of 1919, gave it as his opinion that the 
Ulster delegates were restrained from voting as they would have 
preferred to vote, by "outside influences." What those in- 
fluences were he did not specify. 

Why Ulster should have o])posed the frame of self-govern- 



The Irish Republic 91 

mcnt outlined in the majority report is a bit difficult to under- 
stand, since the convention took extraordinary steps to protect 
the rii^hts of the Ulster minority in the proposed new Irish Par- 
liament. The Nationalists and Home Rulers generally went so 
far as to approve the section which gave to the Crown, through 
the Lord Lieutenant, the right arbitrarily to name forty mem- 
bers of the lower house of the proposed new Irish Parliament. 
Tney were to be picked with special reference to their Ulster 
symjiathy. This was gladly agreed to by the Nationalists and 
sh( uld l)e particularly noted as dis])laying the magnamity and the 
tolerance which the South of Ireland felt toward their fellow- 
men in the North, notwithstanding the religious bitterness which 
had theretofore characterized their relations. The text of the 
rei)ort setting forth the frame of the new parliament in h-eland. 
as reported by the convention to Parliament, is as follows: 
I. THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. 

(1) The Irish Parliament to consist of the King, and an 
Irish .Senate, and an Irish House of Commons. 

(2) Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parlia- 
ment or anything contained in the Government of Ireland Act, the 
supreme power and authority of the Parliament of the United 
Kingdom shall remain unaffected and undiminished over all per- 
sons, matters and things in Ireland and every part thereof. Sec- 
tion carried by 51 votes to 18. 

H. POWERS OE THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. The 
Irish Parliament to have the general power to make laws for the 
l)cace, order and good government of Ireland, subject to exclu- 
sions and restrictions specified in th.ree and four, below. Section 
carried by 51 votes to 19. 

HI. EXCLUSIONS FROM POW ER OF IRISH PAR- 
LIAMENT. The Irish Parliament to h.a\e no power to make 
laws on the following matters: 

(1) Crown and succession. 

(2) Making of peace and war (including conduct as neu- 
trals.) 

(3) The Army and Navy. 

(4) Treaties and foreign relations (including extradition). 

(5) Dignities and titles of honour. 

(o) Any necessary control of harbours for naval and mili- 
tary purposes, and certain powers as regards lighthouses, buoys, 
beacons, cables, wireless terminals, to be settled with reference to 
the requirements of the Military and Naval forces of His Majesty 
in various contingencies. Sub-section carried by 41 votes to 13. 

(7) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of 



92 The Irish Republic 

weights and measures. 

(8) Copyright or patent rights. Section carried by 49 votes 
to 16. 

TEMPORARY AND PARTIAL RESERVATION. The 
Imperial and Irish Governments shall jointly arrange, subject to 
Imperial exigencies, for the unified control of the Irish Police 
and Postal services during the war, provided that as soon as pos- 
sible after the cessation of hostilities, the administration of these 
two services shall become automatically subject to the Irish Par- 
liament. Carried by 37 votes to 21. 

IV. RESTRICTION ON POWER OF IRISH PARLIA- 
MENT ON MATTERS WITHIN ITS COMPETENCE: 

(1) Prohibition of laws interfering with religious equality. 
N. B. A sub-section should be framed to annul any existing 

legal penalty, disadvantage or disability on account of religious 
belief. Certain restrictions still remain under the Act of 1829. 

(2) Special provision protecting the position of Freemasons. 

(3) Safeguard for Trinity College, and Queen's University. 

(4) Money bills to be founded only on Viceregal message. 

(5) Privileges, qualifications, etc., of members of Irish Par- 
liament, to be limited as in Act. 

(6) Rights of existing Irish officers to be safeguarded. Sec- 
tion carried by 46 to 15. 

V. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. Section 9 (4) 
of the Act of 1914 to apply to the House of Commons with 
the substitution of "ten years" for "three years." The consti- 
tution of the Senate to be subject to alteration after ten years 
provided the Bill is agreed to by two-thirds of the total number 
of members of both Houses sitting together. Section carried by 
46 votes to 15. 

VI. EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY. The executive power in 
Ireland to continue vested in the King, but exercisable through 
the Lord Lieutenant on the advice of an Irish Executive Com- 
mittee in the manner set out in Act. (Sect. 4.) Section carried 
by 45 votes to 15. 

VII. DISSOLUTION OF IRISH PARLIAMENT. The 
Irish Parliament to be summoned, prorogued, and dissolved as set 
out in Act. Section carried by 45 votes to 15. 

VIII. ASSENT TO BILLS. Royal assent to be given or 
withheld as set out in Act (Sect. 7) with the substitution of "res- 
ervation" for "postponement." Section carried by 45 votes to 15. 

IX. CONSTITUTION OF THE SENATE. 

( 1 ) Lord Chancellor 1 

(2) Four Archbishops or Bishops of the Roman Catholic 



2 Z 



fr) '-' r^ 

OZ > 

OK > 

>^ ^ 




The Irish Republic 93 

Church 4 

(3) Two Archbishops or Bishops of the Church of Ireland. . . 2 

(4) A representative of the General Assembly 1 

(5) The Lord Mayors of Dublin, Belfast and Cork 3 

(6) Peers resident in Ireland, elected by Peers resident in 

Ireland 15 

(7) Nominated by Lord Lieutenant — 

Irish Privy Councillors of at least two years' standing. 4 

Representatives of learned institutions 3 

Other persons 4 

(8) Representatives of Commerce and Industry 15 

(9) Representatives of Labour, one for each province 4 

(10) Representatives of County Councils, two for each province 8 

64 
On the disappearance of any nominated element in the House 

of Commons, an addition shall be made to the numbers of the 

Senate. Section carried by 48 votes to 19. 

X. CONSTITUTION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 

(1) The ordinary elected members of the House of Com- 
mons shall number 160. 

(2) The University of Dublin, the University of Belfast, and 
the National University shall each return two members. The 
graduates of each University shall form the constituency. 

(3) Special representation shall be given to urban and in- 
dustrial areas by grouping the smaller towns and applying to them 
a lower electoral quota than that applicable to the rest of the 
country. 

(4) The principle of Proportional Representation, with the 
single transferable vote, shall be observed wherever a constituency 
returns three or more members. Sub-section carried by 47 votes 
to 22. 

(5) The Convention accept the principle that 
forty per cent of the membership of the House of 
Commons shall be guaranteed to Unionists. In pur- 
suance of this, they suggest that, for a period, there 
shall be summoned to the Irish House of Commons 
twenty members nominated by the Lord Lieutenant, 
zvith a z'iew to the due representation of interests 
not otherwise adequately represented in the prov- 
inces of Leinster, Munster and Connaught, and that 
twenty additional members shall be elected by 
Ulster constituencies, to represent commercial, in- 
dustrial and agricultural interests. 



94 The Irish Republic 

(6) The Lord Lieutenant's power of nomination shall be 
exercised subject to any instructions that may be given by His 
Majesty, the King. 

(7) The nominated members shall disappear in whole or 
in part after fifteen years, and not earlier. 

(8) The extra representation in Ulster not to 
cease, except on an adverse decision by a three- 
fourths majority of both Houses sitting together. 

(9) The House of Commons shall continue for five years, 
unless previously dissolved. 

(10) Nominated members shall vacate their seats on a dis- 
solution but shall not be eligible for renomination. Any vacancy 
among the nominated members shall be filled by nomination. Sec- 
tion carried by 45 votes to 20. 

XL MONEY BILLS. 

(1) Money bills to originate only in the House of Commons. 
and not to be amended by the Senate. 

(2) The Senate is, however, to have power to bring about 
a joint sitting over money bills in the same session of Parlia- 
ment. 

(3) The Senate to have power to suggest amendments, 
which the House of Commons may accept or reject as it pleases. 
Section carried by 45 votes to 21. 

XII. DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN HOUSES. Dis- 
agreements between the two Houses to be solved by joint sittings 
as set out in Act, with the proviso that if the Senate fail to pass 
a money bill such joint sitting shall be held in the same session 
of Parliament. Section carried by 45 votes to 21. 

XIII. REPRESENTATION AT WESTMINSTER. 

(1) Representation in Parliament of the United Kingdom 
to continue. Irish representatives to have the right of deliberat- 
ing and voting on all matters. 

(2) Forty-two Irish representatives shall be elected to the 
Commons House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the 
following manner : 

A Panel shall be formed in each of the four Provinces of Ire- 
land, consisting of the members for that Province in the Irish 
House of Commons, and one other Panel shall be formed con- 
sisting of members nominated to the Irish House of Commons. 
The number of representatives to be elected to the Commons 
House of the Imperial Parliament shall be proportionate to the 
numbers of each Panel and the election shall be on the principle 
of proportional representation. Sub-section carried by 42 votes 
to 24. 



The Irish Republic 95 

(3) The Irish representation in the House of Lords shall 
continue as at present unless and until that Chamber be re- 
modelled, when the matter shall be reconsidered by the Imperial 
and Irish Parliaments. Section carried by 44 votes to 21. 

XIV. FINANCE. 

(1) An Irish Exchequer and Consolidated Fund to be estab- 
lished and an Irish Controller and Auditor-General to be ap- 
pointed as set out in Act. 

(2) If necessary, it should be declared that all taxes at pres- 
ent leviable in Ireland should continue to be levied and collected 
until the Irish Parliament otherwise decides. 

(3) The necessary adjustments of revenue as between Great 
Britain and Ireland during the transition period should be made. 
Section carried by 51 votes to 18. 

XV. FINANCIAL POWERS OF THE IRISH PARLIA- 
MENT. 

(1) The control of Customs and Excise by an Irish Par- 
liament is to be postponed for further consideration until after 
the war, provided that the question of such control shall be con- 
sidered and decided by the Parliament of the United Kingdom 
within seven years after the conclusion of peace. For the purpose 
of deciding in the Parliament of the United Kingdom the question 
of the future control of the Irish Customs and Excise, a number of 
Irish representatives proi)ortioned to the population of Ireland 
shall be called to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Sub- 
section carried by 38 votes to 34. 

(2) On the creation of an Irish Parliament, and until the 
question of the ultimate control of the Irish Customs and Excise 
services shall have been decided, the Board of Customs and Excise 
of the LTnited Kingdom shall include a person or persons nomi- 
nated by the Irish Treasury. Sub-section carried by 39 votes to 33. 

(3) A Joint Exchequer Board, consisting of two members 
nominated by the Imj^erial Treasury, and two members nominated 
by the Irish Treasur}', with a Chairman appointed by the King, 
shall be set up to secure the determination of the true income of 
Ireland. Sub-section carried by 39 votes to 33. 

(4) Until the question of the ultimate control of the Irish 
Customs and Excise services shall have been decided, the revenue 
due to Ireland from Customs and Excise, as determined by the 
Joint Exchequer Board shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer. 
Sub-section carried by 38 votes to 30. 

(5) All branches of taxation, other than Customs and Ex- 
cise, shall be under the control of the Irish Parliament. Sub- 
section carried by 38 votes to 30. 



96 The Irish Republic 

XVI. IMPERIAL CONTRIBUTION. The principle of 
such a contribution is approved. Section carried unanimously. 

XVII. LAND PURCHASE. The convention accept the 
recommendations of the Sub-Committee on Land Purchase. Sec- 
tion carried unanimously. 

XVIII. JUDICIAL POWER. The following provisions of 
the Government of Ireland Act to be adopted : 

(a) Safeguarding position of existing Irish Judges. 

(b) Leaving appointment of future judges to the Irish Gov- 
ernment and their removal to the Crown on address from both 
Houses of Parliament. 

(c) Transferring appeals from the House of Lords to the 
Judicial Committee, strengthened by Irish Judges. 

(d) Extending right of appeal to this Court. 

(e) Provision as to reference of questions of validity to Ju- 
dicial Committee. 

The Lord Chancellor is not to be a political officer. Section 
carried by 43 votes to 17. 

XIX. LORD LIEUTENANT. The Lord Lieutenant is not 
to be a political officer. He shall hold office for six years, and 
neither he nor the Lords Justices shall be subject to any religious 
disqualification. His salary shall be sufficient to throw the post 
(jpen to men of moderate means. Section carried by 43 votes to 17. 

XX. CIVIL SERVICE. 

(1) There shall be a Civil Service Commission consisting of 
representatives of Irish Universities which shall formulate a 
scheme of competitive examinations for admission to the public 
service, including statutory administrative bodies, and no person 
shall be admitted to such service unless he holds the certificate of 
the Civil vService Commission. 

(2) A scheme of appointments in the public service, with 
recommendations as to scales of salary for the same, shall be pre- 
pared by a Commission consisting of an independent Chairman 
of outstanding position in Irish public life, and two colleagues, one 
of whom shall represent Unionist interests. 

(3) No appointments to positions shall be made before the 
scheme of this Commission has been approved. Section carried 
by 42 votes to 18. 

XXI. DEFERRING TAKING OVER CERTAIN IRISH 
SERVICES. Arrangements to be made to permit the Irish Gov- 
ernment, if they so desire, to defer taking over the service relat- 
ing to Old Age Pensions, National Insurance, Labour Exchanges, 
Post Office Trustee Savings Banks, and Friendly Societies. Sec- 
tion carried by 43 votes to 18. 



OT C 




97 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE QUID OBSCURUM OF STATESMEN 

THERE seemed now a reasonable expectation that the Eng- 
hsh government would immediately proceed to ask Parlia- 
ment to pass the necessary enabling legislation in conformity 
with the report of the convention. There was still some skep- 
ticism in Ireland among well-meaning persons who were in no 
wise classed as revolutionists. Many shook their heads and said 
they were fearful lest something would turn up to cheat Ireland 
out of self-government at the last minute. On the principle that 
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush many refused to get 
excited over the prospects. Others, however, were satisfied that 
under the promise of the Prime Minister and the government, 
and the self-evident fact that the convention had "substantially 
agreed," the required legislation would be forthcoming at once. 
So Ireland held out its hands for the loaf. 

And behold ! Out of a clear sky came the answer of the gov- 
ernment to the convention: Conscription! 

It is difficult here again to indicate the revulsion of feeling 
that swept Ireland, particularly the South and West. 

Bachelor's Walk was an incident. Easter Week was an 
episode. Conscription was an eclii)se. Here was the national 
thing, the res pnblica, in black cap, with hands tied behind it, 
about to be swung on the gallows! Home Rule Ireland, viewing 
the horrible spectre, even felt the halter draw, and Home Rule 
Ireland came out of its somnambulism. The incredible was star- 
ing at therit. The successive eras of English rule in Ireland now 
appeared to the real Irish in these stages: 

(1) Contempt. 

(2) Insolence. 

(3) Deceit. 

(4) Ridicule. 

It was as if England, employing our American patois, had 
laughed heartily in Ireland's face, and ejaculated : "You poor 
fish ! You didn't think we meant it, did you?" 

This, then, was their disillusionment. It was to the real and 
the credulous Irish the shattering of the last, though always 
dreamy, hope that there still was integrity in British statecraft. 
The last spark of confidence was extinguished. It was the 
Omega! It was the end. It was the sin against the Holy Ghost! 



98 



CHAPTER XX 

THE RECOIL AGAINST CONSCRIPTION 

THE immediate effect of the conscription act was to unify 
all Ireland over night, except the main body of the Cov- 
enanters in the Northeast and a few scattered Unionists in the 
South, to fight the "blood tax." 

Even in Ulster there was a temporary stift'ening against the 
law. It was not until the Ulster leaders learned the government 
had backed down and would not enforce the act, it was openly 
asserted, that Covenanters came out strong for it. Had the gov- 
ernment gone ahead impartially there were signs aplenty that 
even the Covenanters might have joined in large numbers with 
the Nationalists, which would have produced a situation some- 
what analagous to 1798 when the Presbyterians joined with their 
Catholic brethren against British rule, for which many of them 
paid with their necks. As it was, there was a strong under- 
current in Ulster against the "blood tax" which did not recede 
until the government backed up. All the rest of Ireland came 
together with hardly a dissenting voice on the conscription issue. 

There was not a faction line that was not obliterated. The 
Constitutional Nationalists, Independents, Sinn Feiners, Labor- 
ites, Irish Volunteers, and the hierarchy, merged into a solidarity 
not known in Ireland since Ireland had political parties. His- 
tory does not disclose such a unanimity of purpose on the part 
of any people on what they conceived to be a fundamental of 
human rights. 

It was as if the Reimblican party, the Democratic party, the 
Prohibition i)arty, the Eabor party,' the Socialist party, the 
Anarchist party, and the I. W. W. of the United States had 
dropped all party differences and swung together for the de- 
fense of a common principle. 

The people rose above all formulae, even above the church. 
Had not the Catholic hierarchy stood with the people in this 
hour the hierarchy would have been left to drift for itself, in 
large measure abandoned by the enraged masses. No political 
party in the South and West could have existed an hour had it 
temporized on this issue. Not in Ireland's history has there been 
a greater display of nationality — a clearer elevation of patriotic 
pride above every other human obligation. Patriotism became a 
holy thing. This was first ; this determination to resist and de- 



The Irish Republic 99 

fend. Every other human consideration was immaterial. The 
hierarchy, appraising the tremendous spirit of the hour, joined 
in, and when this was done, England had not a leg to stand on — 
except massacre ! She was faced now by a practically united 
people, save the more intolerant Covenanters, and in every breast 
there was the spirit of Easter W^eek. It was that unanimity that 
Edmund Burke must have had in mind when he laid down the 
epigram that it is impossible to indict a whole nation ! England 
had lost the good will of her Irish colonists probably forever. 

It was the opinion of John Dillon, leader of the Constitu- 
tional Nationalists, so stated to the writer in Dublin at the time, 
that the British government was playing a deep game. He had 
the suspicion the puri)ose back of the conscription act was to so 
enrage the people that they would desert the Constitutional Na- 
tionalist party and align themselves with the Sinn Fein. The 
government thereby would be able to destroy Ireland in the 
eyes of the world, first, by wiping out the Nationalists, and sec- 
ond by encouraging a party (Sinn Fein) which the government 
believed (so Dillon held) would cause the whole world to lose 
interest in the Irish question. His first suspicion eventuated, 
namely, that the conscription act would aid the Sinn Fein move- 
ment. It is hardly probable, however, that he understood at that 
time the magnitude of the swing to Sinn Fein. Whatever the 
purpose of the government, all Home Rule Ireland, which was 
to become Independent Ireland in thought, resented the act as 
a profanation of their very souls. 

England was now attempting, instead of conciliation, to as- 
sume a power over the bodies of the Irish people that it did not 
have the right to exercise in any of its dominions. It did not 
have the arbitrary right to impose conscription in Australia or 
Canada. Both these provinces were a law unto themselves in 
this respect. Australia, although it sent half a million of the 
most gallant fighters in the world war to Flanders and France, 
voted down conscription on two occasions, even at the very crisis 
of the war. Australia took the stand that while it was ready to 
fight for the preservation of the British Empire, no power on 
earth had the right to treat the people of Australia as conscripts. 
Canada, also, had the sole right to determine for itself the ques- 
tion of conscription. In other words, Ireland, which had been 
in philosophic rebellion against England through the centuries, 
was placed in a lower scale of coercion than even the self-gov- 
erning colonies of the British government. This was the way it 
appeared to the Irish people. Not only did they consider it un- 
just and indefensible, but humiliating in the last degree. 



100 The Irish Republic 

To the eye-witness it was clearly apparent, instantly the con- 
scription was threatened and later the leaders were deported 
on what they believed to be a trumped up charge, Ireland had 
accepted Sinn Fein over night. The election of December 14, 
1918, was merely a ratification. 

The anti-royalist leaders did not believe England was honestly 
seeking more soldiers for the king's army in the conscription 
move. They did believe that behind it was the purpose ultimately 
to complete the obliteration of Irish Nationality — to finish the job 
begun by King James in 1610. 

The fear was that, by submitting to conscription, by permitting 
the remaining young men in the country to come under English 
military direction, and their removal from the homeland, Ireland's 
power of resistance would be reduced to such a state that the work 
of destruction could be carried out quickly and completely. They 
believed, whether for good reason, that the proposed conscription 
was another phase of the Ascendency program, and that, with 
the last of their youth in the army, probably to be killed in France, 
the Ulster royalists, who were now dominating in a marked degree 
the government at Westminster, could, with little opposition, over- 
run the island, drive the "wild Irish" from their homes and hold- 
ings, suppress the "papists," even as Cromwell had attempted, 
again desecrate their altars, put an end to religious freedom, revive 
the penal laws and in general leave nothing of importance in the 
island that did not bear the watermark of his majesty the king. 

They believed this. The common people believed it. The 
mothers of the sons to be conscripted believed it. They were not 
thinking of the world war in a world sense or what it meant to the 
rest of the world. They considered it, if at all, as a family row 
between three royal cousins. As far as their vision went was Sir 
Edward Carson, the "evil genius" of Ireland, and his associates in 
the British Cabinet after they had forced the same Cabinet to re- 
cant not only its Home Rule pledge but the solemn enactment of 
the Imperial Parliament itself. They thought only of themselves, 
and the mothers said : "If my boy must die. he will die on my own 
doorstep." 

England has no one to blame but herself for this opposition. 
It was the logical and inevitable result of centuries of hypocritical 
dealings with Ireland. Outside of the royalists there was not a 
man or woman or even child in all Ireland in April, 1918, who 
would have given a thruppence for any pledge the British gov- 
ernment might have laid down, war or no war. There is not one 
such even now. 

Moreover, there was not a i)hysical or moral coward among 




JOHN DILLON AND JOSEPH DEVLIN, LEADERS OF CONSTITUTIONAL 
NATIONALIST PARTY, "SNAPPED" IN O'CONNELL STREET. 



The Irish Republic 101 

them. Not one feared death. Death in defense of the historic 
home of the Irish race meant for the adherents of St. Patrick and 
St. Columcille a through passport direct to the Great White 
Throne, avoiding even the transitional i)urification of purgatory ; 
and, as for the anti-royalists among the Protestants, such a death 
would have been embraced with a smile and a transfiguration. 
There are no cowards in Ireland, Catholic or Protestant. 

The rising of the passions of Republicans at this moment 
fashioned an impressive hour in the history of the human family. 
Despite the rumbling of armored trains, the whirr of bombing 
planes in the air, the ominous tread of many thousands of Eng- 
land's soldiers, with their bayonets glistening in the sunshine, 
despite artillery, despite menacing military supremacy on the part 
of the "de facto" government, the masses at least had determined 
that mere physical threats were inconsequential. The attempt 
to raise by conscription and train a raw army of 50,000 men 
in Ireland, when at the very moment the government had in Ire- 
land upwards of 100,000 trained English soldiers, was on its face 
a subterfuge, the Irish leaders declared. 

The conviction was firmly rooted that what England desired 
was not so much soldiers from Ireland, since it would require sev- 
eral months to fit them for service, as it was a direct challenge, 
at the most critical period of the war, of the right of Irishmen in 
Ireland to aspire to a free government. At that moment Eng- 
land, with her back to the wall, as Sir Douglas Haig pointed out 
in his famous dispatch in the Spring of 1918, was appealing to 
the United States to send over its young men in the greatest pos- 
sible numbers before it v/as too late. At that very moment the 
United States was responding to the appeal, and, at the peak load 
of its endeavor, was transporting in the neighborhood of 250,- 
000 American trooj^s a month to British and French 
shores to make the world safe for democracy. There were mil- 
lions of other American troops available, awaiting only transpor- 
tation facilities. Half a dozen good-sized ships would have 
brought from America troops already in training to a greater 
number than was contemplated by the proposed conscription of 
Ireland. At the very moment, also, there still remained gar- 
risoned in Ireland 100,000 trained British troops. The 
Irish leaders could not understand why,' if England was in 
such desjjcrate need of 50,000 more men in France, it did 
not immediately utilize its trained soldiers in Ireland, particularly 
since it was well-known by the English government that con- 
scription could not be enforced in Ireland, short of a massacre, 
and that even then 50,000 conscripts would not be available. 



102 The Irish Republic 

It should always be borne in mind in contemplating this 
phase of the trouble that Ireland already had given upward of 
200,000 volunteers, a great percentage of whom were 
Roman Catholics, for the defense of the Empire. Ireland's con- 
tribution to the world war by the volunteer route was approxi- 
mately five per cent of its entire population, and about fifty per 
cent of its adult manhood, twice the number per population sent 
to France by the United States. Besides, Ireland was the pantry 
that maintained England's morale at several critical periods of im- 
pending and desperate food shortages. Moreover, conscription 
would not have brought in many men from the heart of Ulster, as 
these men were essential to the maintenance of the great ship- 
building plants and the manufacture of aeroplane cloth in Belfast. 
Conscription would have fallen heavily on the rural districts, al- 
ready sufl:'ering from a shortage of farm labor. To take the boys 
from the farms while leaving the young men of Belfast in the 
shipyards and in the linen industry was an aspect of the contro- 
versy that further embittered the South and the West. 

It was the contention of the British government that its large 
trained army in Ireland was necessary to supi)ress threatened re- 
bellion that might seriously involve the war efficiency of Cireat 
Britain. It is conceivable that British statesmen honestly believed 
so large a force was necessary to insure the peace of Ireland, but 
assuredly this opinion was not entertained by equally reputable 
statesmen who w-ere conversant with actual conditions in Ireland 
at the time. It may be a very bold statement, but nevertheless it is 
made with absolute conviction, that England could have removed 
50,000 trained troops from Ireland and sent them to France 
where they were so sorely needed, without jeoi)ardizing Brit- 
ish interests. This was so obvious to the Republican leaders 
and to the Irish people generally, always excepting the royalists in 
the North, that they did not hesitate to declare the proposed con- 
.«;cription a subterfuge and a blood tax, and, because they so be- 
lieved, with seven hundred years of wrongs and rebel traditions 
flaming in their hearts, hundreds of thousands of Irishmen of all 
classes and all religious creeds were attracted to the Sinn Fein 
movement. As is invariably the case, where a stronger nation 
assumes the right of imposing its will upon a weaker nation by 
the practice of what the weaker nation conceives to be dui)licity, 
the passions and the hatreds of the populace exceed in intensity 
the surgings of an outraged state conscience under most any other 
form of goad. To the Irish character, to be tricked into a state 
of impotency is much more humiliating than being slaughtered. 
So it was that the Irish leaders termed conscription the cap sheaf 



The Irish Republic 103 

of long centuries of hypocrisy and double-dealing on the part of 
Great Britain. These were the same Irish people who, in 1914, 
rushed to the colors almost to a man, to avenge Belgium, to save 
France, and even the British Empire itself. These were the same 
Irish people to whom Sir Edward Gray enthusiastically referred 
in the halls of Parliament, soon after the breaking out of the 
world war, when he said that Ireland was the one bright spot 
in the British Empire. 

By what strange devices was this great fighting people changed 
from enthusiastic allies to implacable foes in the course of three 
and one-half years, and years in which the historic blood of the 
Irish was boiling for the fray in support of the principles enun- 
ciated so candidly by President Wilson when he said that the war 
was being prosecuted that men everywhere might choose their 
way of obedience and conscience? What incomparable blunders 
had been made we have already seen. We shall encounter more. 



104 



CHAPTER XXI 



MOBILIZING FOR RESISTANCE 



ON Thursday, April 19. Ireland spoke. It was at the con- 
ference of the representatives of all political parties, save 
the Unionists, held in the Mansion House in Dublin. The Na- 
tionalists were represented by John Dillon and Joseph Devlin. 
Michael Eaton of Corton, William O'Brien of Dublin, and 
Thomas Johnson of Belfast spoke for the Labor interests. De 
Valera.and Arthur Grifliths represented Sinn Fein, and the Inde- 
pendent Nationalists were represented by William O'Brien, M. 
P., and T. M. Healy, K. C, M. P. 

Crowds thronged the streets and gathered in a suffocating 
mass before the Mansion House. The atmosphere was charged 
with electric current. The crowds vaguely understood that an- 
other crisis had come and that inside the historic building the 
destiny of Ireland was again being shaped. Thousands of badges 
were displayed bearing the defiance: "Conscription — Not Damned 
Likely." At the conclusion of the conference, when De Valera 
walked down the steps, he was caught in the surging mass and 
hailed as Ireland's deliverer. A moment later John Dillon and 
Joseph Devlin appeared, and the great crowd, many of whom 
would have jeered from party reasons ten days before, also 
burst into a tremendous roar of "Up Dillon!" and "Up Devlin!" 
Thousands followed De Valera to the depot where he was to 
take his train for Greystones. Once having seen him safely oft', 
they again rushed back to O'Connell Street and cheered Dillon 
and Devlin to their hotel. The flood of humans spread out into 
lower O'Connell .Street, across the bridge that is wider than it is 
long, past the ruins of the Easter rebellion and the granite shell 
of the general post office, and, like a great tidal wave, crashed 
against the Nelson pillar and ]nrouetted up under the bronze 
arms of Charles Stewart Parnell. The noise was like the crash 
of a thunderstorm. They cried, yelled and shrieked. The writer 
was an eye-witness of this scene. 

The populace had not taken the trouble to inquire what had 
transpired in the Mansion House. They seemed to have taken 
it for granted that whatever was done was the right thing. What 
had actually transpired was the unanimous agreement to pledge 




Lal/exck O'Neill 
dublin's lord mayor who' hasn't an enemy among ireland's 
irish anywhere in the world. 



^ 



The Irish Republic [■ 105 

all liberty-loving Ireland to the following manifesto: 

"Denying the r'ujht of the British ijovernment to 
enforce compulsory service in this country, we 
pledge ourselves solemnly to one another to resist 
conscription by the most effective means at our dis- 
posal." 
Earlier in the day, representatives of all the political factions, 
except the Unionists, had proceeded to Maynooth, w'here they 
had laid their determination before the bishops and had in- 
vited them to participate in the amalgamation of the entire Irish 
j)eoi)le in Ireland, save those that were still wedded to the king. 
The bishoi)s accepted the projjosal, not as ecclesiastics in the first 
instance, but as Irishmen dealing with Irish nationality. 

Immediately steps were taken to organize the country for re- 
sistance. It was decided to raise a fund by popular subscription 
to defray the expenses of organization work in all the provinces. 
This "organization" work, also, was to include later the procur- 
ing of food supplies for the young men "on the run" who were 
to take to the hills on the approach of the English soldiers in 
search of conscripts. On Friday, the 19th, at a second meeting 
of the general defense committee at the Mansion House, it was 
decided to prepare a statement to be issued to the world, set- 
ting forth Ireland's attitude on conscription, and also to send 
the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Laurence O'Neill, to the United 
States to lay the Irish claims before President Wilson. The 
O'Neill trip subsequently was abandoned when the British Gov- 
ernment refused to afford him passage to America unless he first 
submitted to the British Foreign Office all documents that he 
proposed to carry to the United States. This, O'Neill refused to 
do on the ground that it was further denying the inalienable right 
of a representative of the Irish people to be heard at the world 
court. 

At the same time arrangements were made for the subscrib- 
ing to the pledge to resist on the following Sunday. This was 
carried out principally through the churches. Meanwhile, all 
civic, labor and religious societies in Ireland, excepting the 
Unionists, mobilized their forces for a display of the unanimity 
that existed. Among these was the organization of the 
Protestants who desired to enter a protest against conscription. 
It was in charge of Miss Nellie O'Brien, 11 Hume Street, Dub- 
lin. This organization drew up the following form of protest 
which was circulated for signatures : "We, the undersigned, wish 
to join our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen in protesting 
in the strongest manner possible against the application of con- 



106 The Irish Republic 

scription to Ireland. We believe that, to force any people to act 
contrary to their will and conscience is a violation of the law of 
God, and cannot but be productive of the gravest and most dis- 
astrous moral, religious and material consequences." 

Perhaps the most significant single movement of this time 
was that of the organized labor forces of Ireland. At a meeting 
of their executive committee, they called upon all workers in the 
whole island to make their protest against conscription con- 
spicuous by "downing tools" on the following Tuesday. So com- 
plete was this cessation of activities that only one railroad line 
in Ireland, outside of Ulster, and the military trains, turned a 
wheel. Practically all industry in Ireland was at a standstill. 
Even the newspaper offices in the South and West were closed. 
Newsboys refused to work, and not a newspaper was to be had 
in Ireland's capital that day. Not a tramcar ran in Dublin. The 
significance of this unanimity on the part of the laboring forces, 
outside of Belfast, was that, if conscription was persisted in, the 
British government would be forced to transport foodstuffs out 
of Ireland by the utilization of the military forces, and at a time 
when England was facing a desperate food shortage. Of his- 
torical interest, as indicating the attitude of the workers of Ire- 
land, was their formal statement issued at the conclusion of an 
all-labor convention on Saturday, April 20th. This declaration 
of principles was as follows : 

"That this convention of Irish labour movement, represent- 
ing all sections and provinces of Ireland, pledge ourselves and 
those whom we represent, that we will not have conscription ; 
that we shall resist it in every way that to us seems feasible ; that 
we claim the right of liberty to decide as units for ourselves, and 
as a nation for itself; that we place before our brothers in the 
labour movement all the world over our claims for independent 
status as a nation in the international movement, and the right 
of self-determination as a nation as to what action or actions our 
people should take on questions of political or economic issues. 
That, in view of the great claims on the resources of the National 
Executive of the Irish Trades Union Congress and Labour Party, 
we hereby call upon the bodies represented here to forward sub- 
scriptions for the purpose of enabling them to carry out their 
campaign against conscription and pledge ourselves to make it a 
success. That this convention calls upon the workers of Ire- 
land to abstain from work on Tuesday next, April 23. 

"(1st) As a demonstration of fealty to the cause of labour 
and Ireland ; 

"(2nd) As a sign of their resolve to resist the application of 



The Irish Republic 107 

the conscription act ; and 

"(3rd) For the purpose of enabling every man and woman 
to sign the pledge of resistance against conscription. 

"Believing that our success in resisting the imposition of con- 
scription will be a signal to the workers of all countries, we call 
upon all lovers of liberty everywhere to give assistance in this 
impending struggle." 

The political parties immediately sent instructions to all parts 
of the island to hold public meetings of protest. The first meet- 
ings were held on the following Sunday, the people coming by 
the thousands, even to remote villages, to join in the protest. 
The meeting at Cork was attended by the largest gathering in 
the city's history. 

Even through the North, in the counties of Ulster, tremend- 
ous gatherings were reported, and while the speeches were bit- 
ter and, to a degree, inflammable, the populace was at all times 
warned to keep its temper and to await further instructions from 
Dublin as to what course they should pursue. 

I made a hurried trip to the counties of Fermanagh, Cavan. 
Monaghan, Armagh, Louth and Meath. Subsequently, the in- 
quiry was extended to the counties farther South. I found in 
town and county, newspaper men. Parliamentarians, Sinn Fein- 
ers, priests, Protestants, farmers, merchants, statesmen, politi- 
cians, educators, authors, and poets standing on the same plat- 
form. They were of one mind, and declared they were ready to 
die in resisting the "blood tax." Fear of physical pain and death 
did not exist. 

The Constitutional Nationalists had summoned the members 
home from Westminster and quickly decided to continue their 
abstension from Parliament so long as a threat of conscription 
remained. The bar of Dublin threw its weight in against con- 
scription and issued the following statement : 

"We, the undersigned, of his majesty's counsel in Ireland, 
hereby approve and adopt the declaration against the proposal to 
impose conscription on Irelan^ against the will of the Irish peo- 
ple." It was signed by A. M. Sullivan, George MacSweeney, 
M. C. Maclnerney, Patrick Lynch, Thomas S. McCann, William 
Carrigan, John McDonigal, E. J. McEllicott, R. J. Kelly, D. J. 
O'Brien, M. J. Kenny, Michael Comyn, William McGrath, Tim- 
othy Sullivan, Thomas J. Campbell and Henry McDermott. 

The signing of the pledge on Sunday. April 21, was likened to 
the spirit manifested in Ireland in the days of O'Connell. 

Even in Belfast, the king was openly defied. Outside of St. 
Peter's a crowd of 8,000 assembled. The church bells chimed 



108 The Irish Republic 

"The Memory of the Dead." A Repubhcan flag was displayed 
and the gathering chorused: "Who fears to speak of Easter 
Week?" The flag evoked loud applause, which rose higher as 
they sang the "Soldier's Song." 

Joseph Devlin, the idol of the Constitutional Nationalist 
forces, in a revolutionary address unleashed the passions of 
hatred against the government's course. 

"All Ireland," he said, with great vehemence, "regards this act 
as a declaration of war on Ireland. And never did England throw 
down the gauntlet to Ireland, and declare war upon Ireland, but 
Ireland — Ireland powerful, Ireland united, Ireland inspired by 
high moral and spiritual ideals — Ireland indestructible, and Ire- 
land irresistible — took it up. There is no nation in the world 
that has a right to conscript another nation, and Ireland — Ire- 
land is a greater nation than England — greater in its civiliza- 
tion — greater in its ideals — more inspiring in its spirituality- 
more ancient, more and more impressive than any other European 
nation — it is not in the spirit of poltroons and cowards that it 
declines to obey England's behest ! Whatever we will do, we will 
do ourselves, and by ourselves alone and by that principle we 
shall rise or fall. The Irish nation stands together today. It 
cannot fail nor fall. The blessings which Providence has be- 
stowed today upon her strong arms and Irish hearts will inspire 
your leaders, both local and national, to guide Ireland through the 
thorny paths over which she will have to tread in the coming 
months." 

A reference by the speaker to the "Men of Easter Week" was 
cheered. The pledge was publicly administered, first in English 
and then in Irish. "The Irish pledge was Ireland's answer," said 
Father Healy, "to Mr. Lloyd George, who had said that few 
people in Ireland spoke Irish." After the taking of the pledge, 
the crowd, bareheaded, sang the "Soldier's Song." Throughout 
tl"je day at the various chapel gates in Belfast similar meetings 
were held, by way of indicating that in the very heart of royalist 
Ireland there was formidable opposition to the government's 
course. 

More dramatic were the demonstrations in Londonderry, in 
the very city that immortalized itself in defending the siege by 
King James II and his Catholic supporters. A press report fur- 
nishes the following account of the ceremony : 

"Immediately after the celebration of each mass the congre- 
gations assembled in the churchyard, and all those over seven- 
teen years took the pledge, in the presence of a clergyman. The 
pledge was recited in first instance by a clergyman and repeated 




Photo Copyright by American Press Association. 

Lord French 
who was sent to ireland, after his campaign in france and 
flanders, to enforce conscription— but didn't. he signed 
his name to the third "german plot" charge. 



The Irish Republic 109 

by the kneeling audience, after which those pledging themselves 
filed past tables where they affixed their signatures to a form of 
covenant. The proceedings, which were of a solemn character, 
produced a marked impression upon those taking part, and this 
was increased by some weighty advice from the clergy, who at 
each service advised their hearers to be patient, and to give no 
provocation or cause for complaint to those representing the au- 
thorities. Soldiers from one of the regiments stationed in the 
city attended a special mass at one of the churches." 

At Omaugh there was a steady stream of visitors to St. 
Patrick's Hill and the Sinn Fein premises in High Street where 
the pledge was signed. At Strabane, another large demonstra- 
tion was held, and throughout North Tyrone and East Donegal, 
the people flocked to the churches and party headquarters by the 
thousands to i)ut their names on the list. At an impressive serv- 
ice in the Cathedral at Cavan "God Save Ireland" was played on 
the organ, and Reverend Father H. P. Brady, after administer- 
ing the pledge in the churchyard, said : 

"May God keep you and bless Ireland." This was cheered by 
the throng. Some 4,000 gathered at Abbey Yard, Newry, for the 
pledge-taking. Mr. D. Sheridan, representing the Newry Trade 
Council, w^as one of the speakers. His closing shot was: "We 
are about to be enslaved by the greatest band of hyocrites the 
world has ever seen — the British Government." An untoward 
incident occurred at the morning service in the cathedral which 
caused some excitement. WHien the announcement was made of 
the anti-conscription meeting to be held later in the day, an officer 
in charge of a party of Royal Irish Rifles, who were attending 
the Mass, arose and directed his men to leave the church, which 
they did forthwith. 

In Dublin a profound solemnity was observable as the thou- 
sands of men, women and children, young and old, took the 
solemn vow. One of the largest demonstrations was at Bamba 
Hall, Parnell Square. In Rath mines signatures were received on 
the steps of the Catholic church, where were displayed large post- 
ers, announcing: "We won't have conscription!" The Statue of 
Parnell (the Protestant), at the northern end of O'Connell Street, 
was pressed into service. To Parnell's uplifted right hand was 
attached a green and gold flag tied with ribbons of the Republican 
colors, while to the other hand was attached a placard bearing 
the words: "No Conscription!" In Dundalk, Reverend James 
McKeene, at the conclusion of the taking of the pledge, said: "It 
(the pledge) is a thing that gives every Irishman joy. Lloyd 
George has been called a wizard, and l:e has performed a miracle 



110 The Iklsh Republic 

with his wizard's wand. That miracle was uniting the people of 
this country together to fight his policy." One of the most impres- 
sive meetings was in the churchyard of St. Macartan's Cathedral 
at Monaghan. Mr. James C. R. Lardner, M. P. (North Mon- 
aghan), said this was the most serious menace that had ever at- , 
tacked the nationhood and manhood of Ireland, and it behooved ''^ 
every man to stand together until they had "fought and smashed 
this attempt to impose conscription." It was a historic day for 
Ireland, he added, when the "priests and people stood united," 
and their message would go out to all the world. He counseled 
them to pay no heed to rumors, as this was a solemn thing, in- 
volving their property, their freedom and their faith. In County 
Down, another Covenanters' stronghold, many large meetings 
were held, the more important gatherings taking place at New- 
castle, Castlewellan, Kilcoo, Leitrim, Maybridge and Ballymar- 
tin. At Armagh the pledge was signed in the Cathedral grounds. 
Large meetings were reported in the counties of Mayo, Sligo, 
Longford, Meath, Kings, Queen's, Kildare, Limerick, Clare, 
Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Wicklow and W^exford. 

The Nationalist Parliamentary party, from the headquarters 
at 39 Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin, immediately announced its 
full allegiance to the anti-conscription cause. Under the direction 
of Mr. Dillon the party's attitude was set out in the following 
resolution : 

"That, in the present crisis, we are of the opinion that the e 
highest and most immediate duty of the members of this party is 
to remain in Ireland, and actively co-operate with their constit- 
uents in opposing the enforcement of compulsory military service 
in Ireland; 

"That the enforcement of compulsory military service on a na- 
tion without its assent constitutes one of the most brutal acts of 
tyranny and oppression that any government can be guilty of ; 

"That the present proposal of Mr. Lloyd George's govern- 
ment to enforce conscription in Ireland is an outrage and a gross 
violation of the national right of Ireland; 

"That the history of the relations between the two countries, 
the ruin and decay in population from which Ireland has suf- 
fered under the domination of Lnglish governments, and the man- 
ner in which Ireland's generous ofifer at the outbreak of the war 
was treated by the British government and the British War Of- 
fice, cruelly intensifies the shameless character of the present 
proposal, and that we pledge ourselves to use all the influence 
and power of the Irish Parliamentary representation to defeat any 
attempt to enforce conscription in this country, and to carry out 



The Irish Republic 111 

the decisions of the National Conference." 

A somewhat disquieting disclosure, which was known to some 
of the government's agents, was the common gossip that plans 
were in the making to deprive England of any further food- 
stuffs in the event of conscription being persisted in. It was the 
suggestion that the farmers who were opposed to conscription 
set fire to their hay and grain in the fields, rather than see it 
transported to England. The same suggestion was made as to 
livestock. Whether it was a jmrt of a well-worked out plan is 
not known to the writer, but one thing was quite certain, the 
state of the public mind was such that very few out of the entire 
Nationalist population in Ireland would have shrunk from facing 
death in refusing to submit to conscri])tion. 

The Nationalists. Sinn Vt'ln and clerical press, in a fury, ut- 
terly disregarded the Defense of the Realm Act, and fired the peo- 
[)le to a new degree of opposition. An editorial in the Dublin Eve- 
ning Telegraph (Nationalist), of April 22, is a fair sample of 
the intensity of the spirit of opposition. It is as follows: 

"In a spirit of calm but resolute determination, Ireland faces 
the future. The challenge thrown down by Lloyd George she 
unhesitatingly accepts with a full consciousness of all the grave 
possibilities it may involve. In every parish in Ireland, the peo- 
ple of Ireland met yesterday to declare with one united voice their 
•mshaken pur])ose to insist that this small nation is entitled to and 
will maintain the same right in regard to conscription as is en- 
joyed by every free community within the ambit of the Empire. 
That is no extravagant or irrational or unconstitutional demand. 
Irishmen claim the same rights as Australians or Canadians or 
South Africans; they will be satisfied with nothing else. To sub- 
mit to the demands of the Die-Hards, and their tool, Lloyd 
George, would be to acknowledge that this country was the mere 
province of England, a sort of grandiose r>ritish shire. Ireland 
never has been a British province, and never will be. She is a 
nation, self-centered, self-contained, marked out by nature itself 
as a distinct national entity. Her claim to freedom rests on that 
basic principle. To admit the right of any alien authority to 
enforce a blood tax would be to surrender everything for which 
our people have fought and sacrificed through all the centuries of 
blood and tears. Irishmen today will not. dare not, prove false 
to the ])roud traditions of the past, to the glorious legacy of na- 
tionhood, which has stood as a beacon light through the long dark- 
night of oppression, encouraging and inspiring those who have 
fought the good fight, and handed down the flag of freedom from 
sire to son. Yesterday's national uprising was no mere theatrical 



112 The Irish Republic 

disi)lay, no futile ephemeral expression of a passing mood. It 
was a sacred and solemn consecration of our people to the na- 
tional cause, and an acceptance in a spirit of supreme serious- 
ness of individual responsibility for the carrying out of the na- 
tional will. The Irish man and the Irish woman who signed 
the solemn league and covenant pledge themselves to stand by 
one another and share one another's sacrifices in the critical days 
that are ahead. All minor considerations are for the time being 
submerged. . . . That vow will be kept. The nation that 
pledged its word and proved false to it would be unworthy of 
freedom, and all that the successive British governments and suc- 
cessive British despots, from Cromwell to Castlereagh, and from 
Castlereagh to Lloyd George, failed to accomplish would have 
been brought about by our own treachery and pusillanimity. Ire- 
land is in no mood to work her owm dishonor. She is aflame with 
the sacred fire of a noble purpose, and against the determined 
will of her people, not even the powers of hell shall prevail. . . . 
If the British government wants peace in Ireland, is really 
anxious for recruits, and does not desire to stand in the dock at 
the Peace Conference, it should at once repeal the conscription act, 
give Ireland a full measure of Colonial Home Rule, and treat this 
country just as it treats Canada, Australia and South Africa. 
England may get through freedom what she will never secure 
by force." 




DE VALERA "SNAPPED" IN OXONNELL STREET 



113 



CHAPTER XXII 

SOME BALLADS OF THE CONSCRIPTION FIGHT 

IRELAND, whether angered or rejoicing, always has expressed 
herself in song and done it well. The old ballads are known. 
The following are mostly the new ones that came spontaneously 
from the hearts of the people as they girded themselves for an- 
other fight to the death with the "alien" on the conscription issue. 
Many found their way to the newspapers unsigned. Some of 
them came from the "common people," and, while they may not 
measure up to the standard for "form" set by the extreme tech- 
nicians, in spirit they strike a deep and resounding chord. The 
contempt in which England at that hour was held by the Irish 
Nationalists, and, withal, the sportsmanlike attitude toward an 
opponent which is characteristic of the Irish race, seemed to find 
a clear expression in these "jingles." Aside from their poetic 
aspect they are of value as disclosing what the feeling was in 
the very depths of the souls of real Irishmen in Ireland. 

TO MISTER JOHN BULL 

So, you've passed your little bill, 

Johnny Bull. 

Such a bitter little pill, 

Johnny Bull. 

We dislike the mere description 

Of your panicky prescription, 

So to hell with your conscription, 

Johnny Bull. 

There are pitchcaps to forget, 

Johnny Bull. 

(And you haven't got us yet), 

Johnny Bull. 

There are promises you've broken, 

Lies you've written, lies you've spoken, 

We'll remember them for token, 

Johnny Bull. 

Now, you've got your answer straight, 

Johnny Bull. 

Think! before it is too late, 

Johnny Bull. 



U4 The Irish Republic 

Enforce — your own damnation ; 
\\'ithdraw — for your salvation, 
But, remember, we're a Nation, 

Johnny Bull. 

TO MR. JINGO 

You can make the price of whiskey one and fouri)enct 
You can still exalt the tax upon the beer ; 
You can bleed us to the core or 
Make the fullest use of D. O. R. A. 
But you can't conscript an Irish Volunteer:. 

You can ration us, and camouflage our tramcars. 
You can make our eggs and bacon very dear ; 
But you know from priest and parson. 
And from dear Sir Edward Carson, 
That you can't conscri'i)t "an Irish Volunteer. 

You can bluff and you can bully, you can bluster. 
You've been doing it for many a long year; 

Piut the Party and Sinn Eein, sir, 

\\ ill assure you once again, sir. 
That you can't conscrii)t an Irish Volunteer. 

From every town and \illage in the country, 
From Irishmen and women far and near, 

You will get the self-same answer, 

So remember if you can, sir, 
That you can't conscript an Irish Volunteer. 

HISTORIC TUESDAY 

(IV hen the zvorkers doivned tools.) 
God bless ye, gallant Irishmen, 

My heart and soul you thrill ; 
Not all the armaments of Hell 

Can crush the people's will. 

Their voice is heard in trumpet tones 
Above the shock of battle : 

"We will not to the slaughterhouse 
Be driven like dumb cattle." 

No vassals in the lunpire's hall 
Are Irishmen to be: 



The Irish Republic 115 

They will not barter or renounce 
Their claim to liberty. 

Ah ! workingmen of Ireland ! 

Ye big-souled, sturdy men, 
This be your motto, one and all, 

"A nation once again." 

Fling up the old flag high above 

Your grim, determined band ; 
\Vho will defend, desi)ite the cost, 

The honour of our land. 

A nation's voice 
A nati(jn's voice, a nation's voice, 

Doth all the welkin fill 
In solemness, in mightiness, 

As Sinai's thund'ring hill ; 
A nation's voice, a people's wrath, 

When roused in righteous cause. 
Should daunt vain rulers in their course, 

And make oppressors pause. 

A nation's voice, omnipotent. 

Is borne abroad today. 
Whose earnestness, whose sternness. 

No tyrants dare gainsay ; 
A people's moral mandate. 

Just as Heaven's high decree. 
And moral right in manful fight. 

Shall set the people free. 

A nation's right, a people's might 

Must ultimate prevail ; 
'Gainst concrete phalanx, fraternized. 

No onslaught can avail ; 
\\'ith lion hearts we'll brave the worst 

Our sleuthhound foes may frame. 
And from the patriotic strife emerge 

To shine in Freedom's flame. 

TO LOYALISTS 

Conscription is alone for slaves. 
But those who love a cause. 



116 The Irish Republic 

Should not wait to be rounded up 
Or cavil, shrink or pause. 

The Empire needs assistance now, 

Why can't ye loyal be, 
And go forth freely in the cause 

Of right and liberty? 

Do ye not hear amidst the fray 
The Empire's clarion call? 

Is't cowardice that makes ye stay 
Behind the Papists' wall? 

Ye cannot hunt with hare and hounds, 

If loyal, do not wait 
Until the war is finished with. 

And then commence to prate. 

It's out upon the plains of France 
The battle must be fought. 

What's that I hear? "We'll only go 
When forcibly we're brought. ' 

Is this the badge of loyalty? 

Ah! had ye faithful been 
No man of ye of hardy frame 

Within our streets were seen. 

Ah ! loyaHsts of Ireland, 

When ye have all gone out, 
It's time to sneer at Papists then, 
And raise the bigots' shout. 

COMRADES, ATTENTION.' 

AH stand together, 

.Strive for kith and kin ; 
March along the new way 

To the goal we mean to win. 
The sacred cause of freedom 
Let no man dare defame, 

Cur cause is "Right," 

Our foe is "Might," 




ARTHUR GRIFFITH AND DE VALERA "SNAPPED" IN DAWSON STREET 
AS THEY CAME FROM THE MANSION HOUSE CONFERENCE. 



The Irish Republic 117 

Strive on and play the game. 

Chorus : 
Comrades, attention ! 
There's force behind the banner, 
There's a cUnch within the spanner, 
Now rally round your banner, 
It is the only way. 
The traitors, w-e don't heed them. 
The others, we don't need them, 
As we march along to freedom 
On Emancipation Day. 

All stand together 

And strive for what is fair ; 
The earth contains some good things still, 

We only want our share. 
Brighter days are dawning, 
The clouds will roll away, 

The past is dead 

So look ahead 
To Emancipation Day. 

DESTINY 

A clear-toned voice across the whole land thundered, 

Thrilled every soul and roused each valiant heart, 
And through the watches of the night resounded 

Vowing of men in every village mart. 
Warm, tender love within their eyes now glowing. 

Stern resolution in the lips closed tight. 
Flung towards the heavens waved the grand old banner, 

W akening bright memories of many a stubborn fight. 

On, on they passed, a rythm of their marching 

Dying away athwart a lonely sea ; 
No song they sang, their souls were overflowing 

With the sweet nectar of dear liberty. 
They stepped together for the sake of Erin, 

Love in their hearts that nothing could withstand, 
Fearing no foe, on God alone relying. 

He would defend their stricken motherland. 

I saw thee stand, my queen beloved, my mother. 
Strong in the justice of thy high emprise. 



118 The Irish Republic 

Love's golden glow illuniining thy features, 
Hope flashing brightly in thy dear, dark eyes 

Old rancours buried in the past forever, 
Thy sons erect, united and unbought. 

Pledged before God to champion without flinching 
Those sacred rights for which their fathers fought. 

"Child of my Heart," a voice spake low and gentle, 
"Since thou were faithful to me on the cross. 

Scorning allurements of base, carnal pleasures. 
Vain, subtle glamour of false mundane dross; 

Because thou wert hated for My Name's sake, Eire, 
Mocked at and made to drink life's bitter gall. 

Thou shalt not feel the pang of dissolution. 
Nor lie beneath a stranger's cruel thrall. 

"Great in the beauty of thy soul, dear Eire, 

Plunged for awhile in sorrow's purging fires. 
Thou shalt behold thy resurrection morn. 

The full fruition of thy just desires, 
As thou did'st pray with Me in dark Gethsemane, 

Receive for thy fealty perennial youth ; 
And, for thy soul's strength in the coming conflict. 

Drink from the fountain of Eternal Truth." 

ALL TOGETHER 

Steady ! Steady ! All together ! 

Young and old, who'er ye be ; 
Brothers, sisters, vowed forever 

To defeat plutocracy. 

Let the alien criticize us, 

Let him hug his wicked spleen ; 

We have other, nobler duties. 
Children of a widowed queen. 

Scorn the sowers of dark discord 
Who would fill our souls with hate. 

Love alone shall yet redeem us 
From our present servile state. 

Why should brothers be divided 

At this most momentous hour? 
Know ye not that in our union 



The Irish Republic 119 

Lies our greatest, strongest power? 

Hand of friendship for each brother, 

Whatsoe'er his creed may be, 
If he stands for Ireland's honour, 

For her rights and hberty. 

Stern, erect and self-reliant. 

Let us press upon our way ; 
Fling the old flag to the heavens. 

Let it float on high today. 

Let it show to those who falter, 

Let it show to those who fear. 
That united we shall conquer. 

Make conscription disappear. 

And when we have won the fight, boys, 

It is then we'll understand. 
What a brave, united peo])le 

Can accom])lish for their land. 

MY MOTHER 

They have stripj^ed thee of thy garments, oh ! my mother! oh, my 

queen ! 
They have clothed thee in tattered rags to satisfy their si)leen. 
Thou wert to them as Lazarus, avoided, poor, disowned. 
The crumbs from Dives table were for thee, a queen dethroned. 
They have made thy name a byword 'mong the nations of the earth 
For misery and wretchedness, and ridiculed thy worth. 
They robbed thee of thy commerce and they exiled half thy sons. 
And now the small remainder they would hurl against the Huns. 
They have spat upon and scorned thee on the road to Calvary. 
They've placed a thorny crown on thy brow as badge of slavery. 
They have washed their hands, like Pilate, they were innocent of 

spite. 
They only wished dear Eiro to be taken from their sight. 
To make the world believe thee false, "Away with her!" they say. 
"Crucify her — foe to freedom, who our cause would now betray." 
And thus they strive to blacken thy fair name, my peerless queen ; 
They would filch from thee thine honour, my beloved Rosaleen. 
But truth and justice will prevail, for God reigns still on high. 
He hears the plea of contrite hearts, the weak ones' humble cry. 
And He who saved the Israelites from Pharaoh's bloody host 



120 The Irish Republic 

Will rescue and protect thee, though the mighty tyrant boast ; 
And He will make of thee, though weak, a lesson to the world. 
Who march along in serried ranks with hate's dark flag unfurled. 
He will make of them His footstool who would scorn to ask His 
aid, 

And make of Him an alien in a world which He has made. 

Ah! mother of the broken heart! Dear widowed Rosaleen ! 

Like unto thy dear Master, the insulted Nazarene. 

Decried by men, a failure, a fool who would not sell 

Thy soul for worldly greatness, to the crafty fiends of Hell. 

Wert thou not tempt, oh ! my love ! like thy sweet King before. 

"The world shall I bestow on thee if, bowing, thoul't adore." 

But precious gift of constancy God did becjueathe to thee. 

When He beheld thy lustrous soul in dark Gethsemane, 

And as He chose poor fishermen, untutored, simi)le men, 

To be his first disciples, now He does the same again. 

And chooses thee. His faithful friend, to spread the light of 

Faith, 
To be a bulwark to His Church, and make it strong and great. 
And from the ashes of a world reborn in Sorrow's womb, 
To rise in dazzling splendour, like thy Master from the tomb. 

JACTA EST ALEA 

Dear old Ireland, hapless Ireland, 

Thy sad travail is not o'er. 
Fell oppression's baneful shadow 

Hovers still above thy shore. 
Once again fate has decreed it, 

You'll be tried by fire and steel. 
And the things you cherish sacred 
Trampled 'neath the vandal's heel. 

AAHiat though in the name of freedom 

They crush liberty and right, 
And invoke the God of Justice 

To uphold the creed of might. 
You must do your Master's bidding 

Serfs may never reason why. 
Minds are not for shackled bondslaves ; 

They have but to serve and die. 
Have they cowed thy martial courage 

That blazed forth on many a field ? 
Have they broken thy proud spirit, 

That was never known to yield? 



The Irish Republic 121 

No ! you're still untamed, unvanquished, 

Scorning every bribe and threat ; 
True to freedom though you perish, 

Ireland's brave old Ireland yet. 

You'll not bow in base submission ; 

Cringe beneath the tyrant's rod. 
You will never yield to Moloch 

The allegiance due to God. 
No ! Their edicts have no terror ; 

You will pay no helot's toll. 
Though they crucify the body 

They can't manacle the soul. 

TO IRELAND IN THE HOUR OF TRIAL 

Enough ! to mourn the widowed years 

Of Hope bereft and Freedom fled ; 
Enough ! to check the scalding tears 

For Erin's Noblest Heroes dead. 
Hate winged its darts with demon skill. 

Fate blindly spurned our prayers, — but yet 
Pride thrills within our bosoms still 

And Love forbids us to forget. 

Across the azure of our sky 

Clouds ever rise at morning-break, 
Shrouding with night the noonday high, 

W^rapping at eve our pathway bleak, 
But rays still pierce the direst gloom, 

Like angel shafts from heaven sped. 
And by their light on Manhood's tomb 

We read th' evangel of our Dead. 

"Fight on !" thy Calvary is long. 

And tortuous each stage may seem 
Tho' bitter be the slings of wrong 

Nought but a cross can man redeem ! 
Bruised feet, racked limbs and aching heart. 

But chasten flesh — the soul within 
Mounts ever. Victim as thou art 

Thoul't triumph yet o'er wrath and sin. 

The pains of parting — famine curst — 

'Mid plenteous fields, o'er flowing store, 



122 The Irish REPLnsLic 

Forced anguished tears from eyes to start 

That flash detiance as of yore. 
The throes of failure fortify — 

As cleansing fires temper steel — 
Penance must passion mortify, 

And danger try the brave and leal. 

Thy passion and they penitence, 
Thy blood and tears — a sacrifice 

Have been to God's omniscience- 
He will accept thy bitter price. 

The sin, the death, the pain foretold 

The wrath to which all men are born — 

They tremble — but the stone unrolled 
IJack from the tomb on Easter morn I 

Then raise, oh! sorrowing Mother Queen, 

To heaven thine eyes, beyond the veil, 
Of 'boding doom — there Sufferer glean 

This token — "God and Right prevail !" 
And Peace returns and Faith is crowned. 

And Justice triumphs over Might. 
Travail is proof of Love profound 

And I^atriot zeal 's the sword of Right. 

Then fear no ])arting then beseems 

The brave who love thee more than life ; 
Thou, whose proud radiance lights their dreams, 

And stirs their souls in mirth or strife. 
No more the lure of golden stores 

Shall tempt tliem from thee. Mother Urn! 
To thee within thy emerald shores 

Their love and blood and lives are sworn. 

AN ORANGE ACROSTIC 

(.1 ''A^o Popery" Jingle of lOO years ago.) 
The following electioneering pasquinade, used on behalf of 
the Orange candidate, Thomas Ellis, Master in Chancery, against 
Henry Grattan, son of the famous patriot, who was a candidate 
in 1820 for the representation of the City of Dublin, rendered 
vacant by the death of his illustrious father, is of interest at this 
time : 

LET not false mercy aid seditious cause, 
A rebel never will submit to laws. 



The Irish Republic 123 

PAPIST and loyal! Answer me this thing 

HAVE serpents gratitude? Have asps no sting? 

SWAY is his aim and power without control, 

AND persecution fires his bigot soul. 

HIS thoughts by treacherous actions are disclosed; 

KING laws and government — all these are opposed. 

HE'LL say, I'm loyal, and within an hour, 

BETRAY a country to a hostile power. 

BIND him wath oaths ! Oaths have no powder to bind 

HIM whom a priest is sovereign of his mind. 

FAST bound in bigot seal, his jaundiced eyes 

IN every foe a heretic descries. 

A fixed aversion and determined hate, 

CHAIN, fire or halter heretics await. 

HE can first swear, forswears, then is absohed — 

IS to be trusted only when involved 

FAITHFUL when seeking Protestant damnation 

AGAIN to rise up — Transubstantiation. 



THE PRIMi: MINISTER 

Lloyd George, you have awakened 

Dark memories of pain. 
Of Cromwell and of Inchiquin, 

And thousands cruelly slain. 

Of famine and of pestilence. 

When millions starved to death. 

Ah ! W'hile you perpetuate the wrong 
These things we won't forget. 

\\'e now have pledged our solemn oath 
To stand as brothers ever. 

Then hear our answer, loud and clear, 
"Conscription — Never — Never !" 



124 



CHAPTER XXIII 



SIR HORACE PLUNKETT 



SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, chairman of the Irish Conven- 
tion of 1917-1918, has all the instincts of a Unionist, but the 
education of a Home Ruler. At one time he was a Unionist 
member of the English Parliament. He was not and is not a 
Catholic. He is not now for Sinn Fein. He is endeavoring to 
organize the moderatists, or the middle-of-the-roaders, for a set- 
tlement somewhere between Home Rule and the Federal system. 
Sir Horace's opinion, therefore, could not be attributed to Papal 
leanings. It was natural that one of the first responsible spokes- 
men in Ireland to whom we should turn for light was Sir Horace. 
I went to see him at his home at Foxrock. He handed me the fol- 
lowing statement for my perusal, twenty-four hours before it was 
sent to the Associated Press for world dissemination : 

"At the gravest crisis with which the British Empire has ever 
been faced, the government have staked their existence on a two- 
fold Irish policy — conscription and Home Rule. 

"They cannot achieve both. At the cost of much present 
bloodshed and lasting hate they might achieve the first, thereby 
making the second impossible. In my opinion, for what it is 
worth, they would fail in the attempt, leaving both undone. Their 
successors would then have to find a way out of the worst Irish 
situation in my memory. 

"I would not write this, did I not believe that, even now, at 
the eleventh hour, it is not beyond the resources of statesmanship 
to achieve the double purpose the vast majority of both peoples 
have in view, which I believe could not only satisfy the reason- 
able aspirations of the Irish people at home, but also get them 
to follow voluntarily the immemorial instincts of their chivalrous 
race and the example of their kinsmen and sympathizers through- 
out the United States and the British Dominions. 

"There is one, and one only, alternative to the disastrous 
policy upon which the Cabinet have embarked, and that is to set 
up at once a responsible government in Ireland. The report of 
the convention has shown that they could do this with the sup- 
port of a large body of Irish Nationalists and Unionist opinion. 
They should pass through Parliament without delay the neces- 
sary legislation as a war measure. 

"The present chaos, with its growing bitterness, its utter de- 



The Irish Republic 125 

moralization of our public life, and its discredit to British states- 
manship, need not be continued while we are waiting for a Par- 
liament. The moment the bill is passed, an Irish Executive, 
broadly representative and composed of responsible men who 
would not shirk the burden of their brief authority, should be 
appointed and given the task to setting up the Parliament as 
quickly as possible, of promoting voluntary recruiting, and gen- 
erally carrying on. 

"The Irish people given their own instrument of government, 
would quickly show the world what is their real attitude to this 
war. It may then dawn upon Englishmen that we have in Ireland 
no pro-Germans except those they have made, not of malice pre- 
pense, but through incapacity to understand us." 

We passed the day going over the Irish situation, and it was 
finally agreed that I should reduce to writing our conversation, 
and submit the manuscript to Sir Horace for revision and ap- 
proval, with a view to publishing it. This was done. The sub- 
joined interview is here reproduced, as indicating the thought in 
the foremost minds in Ireland not in any way associated either 
with the Catholic hierarchy, or Sinn Fein. The interview follows : 

"We are back in chaos," he said slowly. "The situation seems 
desperate. There is a way out, but whether it would be fol- 
lowed, who can tell? There is, I am satisfied, but one way, and 
that is Home Rule first, and voluntary recruiting afterward. No 
sane man, it seems to me, can view the conscription threat with- 
out the most alarming forebodings. Conceivably, it might be the 
rock on which the Empire could go down. Our statesmanship 
seems suddenly to have become bankrupt. The folly of this pro- 
posal must be apparent to many minds in England. Those who 
realize it feel diffident of asserting themselves, no doubt, lest they 
should add to the difficulties of prosecuting the war. Of course, 
English statesmen misunderstand us. It seems they always have 
and more so at present than ever before." 

Sir Horace, in leading up to an explanation of why the oppo 
sition to conscription in certain quarters was so bitter, paused to 
suggest that nowhere was the opinion entertained that the objec- 
tion sprang from cowardice. 

"The Irish question," he went on, "just now is more than ever 
a psychological one, which makes it even more difficult for the 
outside world to understand us just at this moment of war dis- 
traction that prevails to the uttermost parts of the earth. I am 
quite satisfied that all our statesmen will agree now that the Irish 
question has been muddled more or less from the start of the war, 



126 The Irish Republic 

regardless of their present views as to how a settlement may be 
brought about. 

"But for all this muddling, and notwithstanding the shelving 
of the Home Rule act at the beginning of the war, Irish boys vol- 
unteered in goodly numbers. They have given their lives in some 
of the most desperate fighting on the battlefields of Flanders, 
France and elsewhere. It won't do to try to make out that these 
volunteers represented one class only. They were Catholic and 
Protestant, perhaps a slight majority being Catholic. They were 
Home Rulers and Unionists. They represented all Ireland. 

'Tt is not that Irishmen now are averse to fighting and dying. 
It is a question of their understanding why they should fight. 
Grant, for the sake of argument, that they may, at present, be act- 
ing unwisely from a world point of view in opposing conscrip- 
tion. The point seems to be that it is not an academic question 
any longer, but a condition of settled belief, and, with the grow- 
ing bitterness everywhere, that belief is not susceptible to modifi- 
cation by argument or coercion. 

"That part of Ireland that now is determined not to have con- 
scription believes that the proposal means disaster to Ireland. So 
deep rooted is their distrust for Great Britain that some of them 
regard conscription as the beginning of a new plantation of the 
South. This attitude may seem hysterical, but it cannot be ig- 
nored, for it is a real and deep-rooted fear. This was the old 
distrust and there is no gainsaying the fact that, from whatever 
cause, this distrust has persisted in varying degree on the part 
of many for generations." 

Sir Horace was not prepared to lay down a hard and fast rule 
and, to say whether, in his opinion, that general distrust was jus- 
tifiable. He went over the stirring events that marked Ulster's 
preparations for resistance, the drillings and gun-running, and 
then went into the reasons for shelving the Home Rule bill in 
1914, which he justified. 

"Like a bolt out of the blue," he said, "came this world war. 
For good reasons, and sound ones, a truce was declared, and all 
Ireland, forgetting their own troubles, plunged into the defense of 
the Empire. Still, many were skeptical. The I-told-you-so's of 
the, old element nod.4^d wisely. Something always was sure to 
come up that would stop Home Rule. This element, in their dis- 
appointment, rnay or may not altogether have attributed the 
shelving of Home Rule in 1914 to trickery rather than to the hon- 
est desire for self-preservation of all of us — Ireland as well as 
England. But many, no doubt, thought then that England did not 
intend at any time to grant self-government to Ireland. 




Sir Horace Plunkett 
chairman of irish convention (1917-18) and severe critic of 

BRITISH GOVERNMENT FOR ITS ATTEMPT TO IMPOSE CONSCRIP- 
TION AFTER FAILING TO GRANT HOME RULE. 



The Irish Republic 127 

"For my part, I believe England was absolutely sincere at this 
point, and in no way ruled by sinister motives in dealing with the 
Home Rule situation. However, many believe, in the light of sub- 
sequent events, that had the government gone right ahead with 
the Home Rule act of 1914, we should have by this time a stable 
form of government in Ireland, and Ulster would have been con- 
vinced by actual experience that many of its fears were night- 
mares. 

"But Home Rule was shelved — after it was a law and after a 
struggle of a hundred years. The old hatreds sprang into new life 
among the more intense, and what may be termed the idealistic, 
youth of Ireland. Sinn Fein had a new lease of life and Sinn 
Fein derived its nourishment from the belief that England hated 
Ireland, intended always to hold Ireland as a serf state and that 
some manner of trickery was at hand to defeat Irish self-govern- 
ment even when force was not necessary. 

"For my part, I do not want to be understood as impugning 
at all the motives of statesmen in their disposition of the Irish 
question at the outbreak of the war. It seemed then a question of 
not whether Ireland should have self-government, but whether 
self-government should be left anywhere in the world. However, 
the young radicals of Ireland did hold the truce to be in the na- 
ture of trickery and double-dealing. 

"The Easter rising, ill-advised and the act of desperate men, 
however sincere and patriotic they deemed themselves to be, was 
not entirely a surprise. 

"That these forces should accept aid from Germany was not 
so much, it seems, because they admired Germany and German 
methods, as because they were ready to accept help from any 
source in what they believed to be a righteous effort to down Eng- 
land, or at least secure the Republic for Ireland. They did not 
look at the world problem, but confined their outlook, doubtless, 
to the one object of securing Ireland's independence and at a 
time when the great powers were so concerned with grave issues 
elsewhere that they would not be expected to pay much atten- 
tion to Ireland. 

"It was what Burke and Grattan prophesied in the eighteenth 
century — that, if Ireland were denied her free constitution, she 
would choose her day for a reckoning, the day of England's dif- 
ficulty. 

"Although the Sinn Fein revolt was not countenanced by a great 
mass of Irishmen, it had its effect in inspiring them to become 
more insistent in their demand for full self-government. 

"It was necessary to employ the military forces of the Crown 



128 The Irish Republic 

to restore order and protect life and property. The presence of 
the mihtary continued the psychological development. Here was 
the visible thing^ — England's soldiers — and the more volatile 
among us, though we are in the main an intensely practical people, 
saw in this demonstration of force the armed power from across 
the Irish sea that was in a position to enforce English domination. 
And they, furthermore, coupled it with what they wanted to be- 
lieve — namely, that England always would find some way out of 
a difficulty that gave Ireland a hope of self-government. That is 
to say, Home Rule Ireland was more ready to accept this line of 
reasoning than any other. It fell on receptive minds. It was the 
imbedded thought of the people and easy to bring to the surface 
by any untoward event. 

"Then we smouldered along, trying to do our best in the war, 
trying to give our strength to the Empire, as well as to the Allies, 
and the Irish soldiers continued to go into the front line trenches 
and to give their lives for what we conceive to be freedom of the 
world from military domination. 

"America finally declared war on Germany. Your great Presi- 
dent, with a remarkable foresight and a vision that has been little 
short of miraculous, knew his people better than any other mind, 
it now appears. He bided his time, but when he did call the 
United States to the colors, he had substantially a united people 
behind him. and the response of the United States, especially to 
fight four thousand miles away from home, is one of the great 
pages of history. 

"Ireland — Home Rule Ireland particularly — naturally felt the 
thrill, for doubtless there has been a closer and more helpful ex- 
tension of real sympathies between the United States and Ireland 
than between any other peoples, for a vast number of your lead- 
ers and some of your great presidents have come of Irish stock. 

"Then came that extraordinary statement of what constitutes 
humane and justifiable government, when your President laid 
down the principle of self-determination and self-definition — the 
right of small and weak peoples to the unselfish protection of their 
more powerful neighbors — the right to liberty and the pursuits of 
happiness — the inherent right to self-government. The world war, 
he announced to the world, was to make the world safe for democ- 
racy, and to set up for the small nations, wherever such nations 
so desired, the protected right to be governed after their own 
wills, namely, that all just power is derived from the consent of 
the governed. 

"Well, that statement fell on Home Rule Ireland like the ful- 
fillment of all that freedom-loving Ireland had visioned for cen- 



The Irish Republic 129 

turies. Naturally it inspirited our people and resulted in allaying 
the fears of many well-meaning patriots that Home Rule was a 
myth so long as England was powerful enough to prevent its con- 
summation. Ireland for the moment — all Ireland — responded to 
the invitation to view the world war as an affair in which all 
freedom-loving peoples were concerned, and I say that despite the 
persistence of the more extreme of the Irish radicals. 

"Those who still insisted that some way probably would be dis- 
covered to cheat Ireland out of Home Rule, even at the Peace 
Conference, were ready to lay aside prejudices for the moment 
and make another try at a settlement of our long-standing diffi- 
culties. In response to the general desire, both in America and in 
England, to settle the Irish question at once — in a measure at 
least — without waiting for the Peace Conference, Mr. Lloyd 
George addressed a letter to the late John Redmond, proposing 
immediate steps for bringing Home Rule to Ireland, on the basis 
either of a bill that would admit of the partition of Ireland and 
the setting of Ulster to one side, or a convention of all Irish 
interests in an effort to settle for themselves the form of govern- 
ment they would have. 

"Mr. Redmond accepted the convention proposal. He firmly 
rejected the partition scheme. The history of the convention is 
known the world over. We got together. Every element in Irish 
life — political, religious, professional, social and labor, with the 
single exception of Sinn Fein, who refused to participate — en- 
deavored by every effort that human beings could avail themselves 
of to work out the political salvation of Ireland. 

"Unionist and Home Ruler came closer together than ever be- 
fore. Catholic and Protestant prelates came to understand one 
another better. We found we were not so far apart after all. 
The Irish spirit flamed high, for hope had come to all of us. What 
had seemed almost irreconcilable differences in mental attitudes 
melted away in part. 

"We were on the point of coming together as Irishmen, with 
the old prejudices in the background. While we did not agree 
unanimously, I am firmly of the opinion that a system of govern- 
ment set up in Ireland — even now — after the general terms of the 
majority report, will bring peace to this land, and that even Ulster 
can come in with safeguards that will insure protection of the es- 
sential things she treasures — both in commerce and religion — and 
that Ireland in the very act of establishing this self-government 
will respond, proportionately, to the appeal of the Allies, as whole- 
heartedly as any nation, large or small. 

"Again, what happened? All Home Rule Ireland — inspired 



130 The Irish Republic 

by a spirit that has been in being for centuries and cannot be 
counted a mere passing whim — felt the reUef and entertained the 
hope. The people waited for the process of parliamentary ma- 
chinery to set them free within the Empire. Self-determination 
was all but an accomplished fact, and at the very moment when 
Germany was tearing up another scrap-of-paper in the Ukraine, 
Esthonia and Poland. It w^as the golden opportunity of the Allies 
to emphasize the sincerity of their professions, while the war still 
was on, in striking contrast to the military interpretation by Ger- 
many of no annexations and no indemnities. 

"Then, out of another clear sky, without warning, and con- 
trary to all expectations, there came the thunderbolt. The British 
government did bring in a bill — conscription for Ireland ! I doubt 
if anything could be conceived more calculated to tear Ireland to 
pieces over night than this. 

"It is psychological again. It is not that conscription is op- 
posed because of cowardice. Immediately the Irish mind — Home- 
Rule Ireland — saw in the conscription rider the reaffirmation by 
England of the right of coercion of Ireland — the assumption of 
the right of a powerful nation to conscript a smaller nation, al- 
though legally that right might exist. It was not surprising that, 
in a day, there ensued an immediate amalgamation of hitherto bit- 
ter political opponents in Ireland and that all of Home Rule Ire- 
land leaped to the one platform — resistance ! 

"It should always be borne in mind, in endeavoring to under- 
stand Ireland just now, that the psychological phase is all im- 
portant — the reiteration by the majority of Irish people that Ire- 
land is a nation in the souls of the people, and that the act of 
Union is not held to be binding on their conscience. That may be 
called by different names. Some may term it rebellion. Others 
see in such a spirit the purest expression of the demand of a peo- 
ple for self-government. 

"A plebiscite, doubtless, which is the essence of self-determina- 
tiop as set forth by the Allies, would give a unanimous voice for 
Home Rule among the people who now stand solidly arrayed 
against conscription and challenge at once the whole power of 
Parliament to legislate against their wills. Whether by this atti- 
tude Home Rule Ireland becomes rebels and outlaws or high- 
minded patriots, is beside the question for the moment, since these 
people regard conscription as invoked by the desire further to de- 
populate Ireland, to sap Ireland of its remaining manlieod to a 
point where resistance to any rule of England, however unjust 
they might deem it, would be utterly out of the question for gen- 
erations. 



The Irish Republic 131 

"To these people, conscription is not conscription for man 
power in the war, but complete suppression, a final breaking of 
their wills, another trick by which they have been led up into 
the mountain only to be suddenly hurled farther back than before. 
The distrust entertained toward the British government is more 
pronounced just now probably than at any time in our history. 
Meantime, the alternate hot and cold policy pursued by those who 
appear incapable of entirely understanding us, has aiiforded the 
agency for the stirring of all the old prejudices of Ulster against 
us and has resulted in rearing between these two sections of our 
people the old adamant wall that had begun to crumble gradually 
in recent years, esi)ecially in our recent convention. 

"Whether morally the Irish people — Home Rule Ireland — are 
right or wrong in their opposition to conscription, and opinions 
may well differ, we come to the reason for conscription — more 
soldiers and the winning of the war. 

"Here, it seems to me, the government's contention collapses. 
The spirit of resistance now prevailing means that the government 
must carry on conscription by sheer force, which means the im- 
planting of new and bitter hatreds that will continue through gen- 
erations. It means more than that. It means that it probably will 
require as many trained soldiers to corral the conscripts as the 
number of conscripts ultimately corralled, assuming all available^ 
could be rounded up. 

"How does that contribute to the winning of the war, when 
we are at the supreme crisis? And how effective will be such un- 
willing conscripts? Should the estimated conscripts be secured, it 
would require some months to train them properly and fit them 
for service in the trenches. By that time the war may be over, or 
nearing the end, and in favor of the Allies, whereas the trained 
soldiers already sent to Ireland could be sent forthwith to France. 
If it be the net result we are looking to, then conscription for 
Ireland just at this hour would seem ill-advised. Whether that 
view be correct or not, the point is that conscription can be im- 
posed only through force. Anyone thoroughly conversant with 
aft'airs in Ireland at present must view such an attempt with great 
sorrow. 

"But I am still of the opinion that Ireland can yet take its 
place beside the Allies and do a big part, proportionately, in the 
present war. As everyone knows, you have a difficult task, when 
you seek to convince the Irish character by coercion, even when 
the object sought is good. That is why the Irish question bothers 
outsiders so much. They don't understand Irishmen in Ireland 
and they will not try to understand them. 



132 The Irish Republic 

"The same argument applies to Ulster. Outsiders do not un- 
derstand Ulster, and you cannot coerce Ulster against her settled 
determination sooner than you can coerce Munster or Leinster or 
Connaught against their wills. 

"Yet the Irish people will do and sacrifice for love and sym- 
pathy and fellowship as greatly as any peoples on the earth. There- 
fore, let Parliament ])roceed at once to lay the conscription proi- 
posal on the shelf and keep it there. Then set up an honest Home 
Rule government in Ireland, mindful of safeguards for Ulster to a 
reasonable degree, or the machinery by which the people of Ire- 
land shall say what their government will be within certain funda- 
mental prescriptions. 

"Once do that, and the Irish people are convinced that there 
no longer exist ulterior motives behind proffers from the other 
side of the Irish sea, and I do not believe it possible to keep our 
Irish young men out of France. They certainly would join up to 
fight with the young Irishmen of England and America. 

"We could impose, if it should be deemed advisable, some 
measure of registration of our manhood, provided it were done 
by an Irish Parliament, and under that registration we would be 
able more efficiently and scientifically to attend to all the needs of 
agriculture and the supplying of foodstufl:s to our Allies, which 
will be of utmost importance in the coming months, and which 
may be more important than the question of any number of sol- 
diers from Ireland. My judgment is we could furnish both sol- 
diers and the maximum supply of foodstuffs. Soldiers secured 
from Ireland by this plan would be of the highest value. 

"Because of the character of the Irish people and the history 
of Ireland, I should like to see the British government let us have 
our own way for a trial at least, in establishing self-government, 
and then the world could judge from our acts whether we were 
worthy of the claims set up for generations." 




Prince of Wales in Investiture Robes 

he was sent to rome to pay friendly respects to the pope 
while anti-catholic propag'^nd\ was launched against 
ireland by government leaders. 



133 



CHAPTER XXIV 



NO POPERY 



WHETHER the Britisli government was responsible for pro- 
jecting the "No Popery" issue into the already surcharged 
situation, it was so blamed by the Irish leaders, and had the ef- 
fect of farther cumulating the holy hatred for all things British. 
What made the Irish resentment of this charge all the more ve- 
hement was the feeling that it was another piece of hypocrisy, 
and, whether hypocrisy or not, was descending, they believed, to 
the level of savage tribes, since in the midst of this campaign and 
while the propaganda was being spread broadcast through Pro- 
testant populations the world over, the British government sent 
the Prince of Wales forthwith to Rome to pay his official and 
friendly respects to the Pope. 

Had it not been for this official visit of the Prince to the Vat- 
ican, Ireland might have accepted the religious issue raised by 
England with little concern, since, in the most effectual propa- 
ganda the government had thus far used in arousing hatred of 
the world toward Germany, namely, the story of bleeding Bel- 
gium, Cardinal Mercier had been so highly extolled. But to raise 
the "No Popery" issue for consumption in Protestant communi- 
ties, thereby rekindling the fires of bigotry, and at the same time 
lending the impression to Catholics that they were with them by 
sending the Prince to Rome, had all the efi:'ect of confirming "free 
Ireland" in the opinion that opposed to their [)rincii)les was not 
only bigotry, but continuing hypocrisy and cant. 

The London Times, A\n\\ 24, 1918, three days after the sign- 
ing of the pledge that Ireland would resist conscription, thrust the 
"No Popery" issue into the controversy with the following edi- 
torial utterance, under the cai)tion, "A Grave Responsibility:" 

"It says much for the forbearance of the British peo[)le, and 
for their real abhorrence of religious animosities, that so little 
protest should have been made in public against the latest action 
of the Roman hierarchy in Ireland. Yet there is no misunder- 
standing the tremendous gravity of the issue which they seem bent 
on raising. It goes far deeper than any mere question of the ex- 
pediency of enforcing military service on Irishmen, though this 
is its occasion. 

"At bottom, it is nothing less than the old claim of a power- 
ful religious organization to defy the law of the land in a matter 



134 The Irish Republic 

which is not even remotely rehgious. Last Thursday the Roman 
hierarchy met in conclave at Maynooth and adopted a statement 
which virtually placed them at the head of the anti-conscription 
movement. They have already, therefore, given to that movement 
a great and inevitable stimulus. Individual bishops have since 
done something to recommend that it should be carried on with- 
out bloodshed, and it is arguable perhaps that their policy was 
deliberately adopted in order to keej) the forces of rebellion under 
discipline. But their responsibilities are incalculably serious 
henceforth, as our Dublin correspondent has pointed out, and the 
real character of these responsibilities mvist not be forgotten. In 
throwing down a challenge to the Imperial Parliament, the Roman 
hierarchy have done far more than repeat their old, obscure inter- 
vention as individuals in the Home Rule controversy. They have 
openly assumed the right to interfere as a church in politics, and 
in so doing they have shaken to its foundation the whole edifice 
of religious toleration in these islands." 

The Manchester (England) Guardian immediately took up the 
challenge thrown down by the Times. Commenting on the asser- 
tion that the action of the Irish bishops had "shaken to the founda- 
tion the whole edifice of religious toleration in these islands," it 
editorially declared: 

"First, the 'edifice of religious toleration' is, after all, not quite 
so rickety a structure as the Times, preparing for the assault, 
imagines it to be. It is the growth, after all, of several centuries 
of our history, and though its principles appear to have taken no 
firm root in PrintiiKj House Square, they are fairly well under- 
stood and profoundly cherished by Englishmen generally and will 
not be breached by even the most liberal expenditure of printer's 
ink. But, secondly, if the edifice was going to be shaken by a 
display of ecclesiastical partisanship in Ireland now, why was it 
not set rocking four or five years ago when the Protestant 
churches of Ulster solemnly pledged themselves and their flocks to 
resist the Home Rule act should it become a law ? The move- 
ment was strictly analogous to that recently enacted in the Cath- 
olic churches of the South and quite as official, yet we are not 
aware that the Times scented any peril to the cause of religious 
toleration, which, as a matter of fact, was no more in danger 
then that it is now. Is it not time that this intolerable sort of 
hypocrisy should cease and that we should at least approach our 
political problems, which are in themselves surely sufficiently 
hard, with some approach to intellectual honesty?" 

The Guardian, a few days later, May 11, reviewing the whole 



The Irish Republic 135 

Irish situation, said: 

"Mr. Lloyd George's government has been in power for a 
year and a half. It has done some very good work ; it is now pre- 
paring to do some very evil work. The good it has done — not, it is 
true, without qualifications — has been in putting fresh heart into 
the conduct of the war and in bringing about at last, and with 
heavy penalties for the delay, unity of command. The evil it is pre- 
I)aring is more instant and qualified. If not restrained, it will, with- 
m a few short weeks, undo all the progress which has been made 
since Mr. Gladstone first undertook the work, in the pacification 
of Ireland. That is to say, it will have destroyed the reconciling 
work of more than a generation of statesmanship, and will have 
given us an Ireland more ungovernable except by main force, more 
exasperated in feeling, more deeply alienated than any with which 
this country has had to deal since the rebellion of 1798. That is 
the prospect, and we do not believe we have overdrawn the pic- 
ture. We should be glad to believe that we have overdrawn it. 
But all the information that reaches us, whether from public or 
from private sources, goes to show that the government are 
deliberately preparing a catastrophe. 

"The first overt steps may be taken shortly after Whitsuntide 
— that is, in about three weeks. The preliminary steps have, of 
course, been in active preparation ever since the passing of the 
Military Service act. These steps are partly civil, partly mili- 
tary. In regard to the first, we have the resignations of the Irish 
Attorney-General, a Liberal and a Home Ruler; of the Chief Sec- 
retary for Ireland, Mr. Duke, a Conservative, but who had become 
convinced, like other Conservatives with experience of Irish ad- 
ministration, of the need of a great advance in the direction of 
Irish self-government; of Lord Wimborne, the Liberal Lord 
Lieutenant. 

"Of the military preparations, we are not free to speak. They 
are perfectly well known in Ireland, and are reflected first in the 
resignation or suppression of Sir Bryan Mahon, the liberal- 
minded Commander of the Forces in Ireland, a good Irishman 
whom most Irishmen thoroughly liked and trusted, and next in 
the impending restriction on all passenger traffic across St. 
George's Channel. 

"What is clearly intended is the enforcement of conscription 
in Ireland at the point of the sword. It is perfectly well known 
and best of all it must be known to the government, that this can 
only be done at the cost of bloodshed and of extensive bloodshed. 
The toll of blood must be taken wherever the toll of men is 
taken — that is, in every village of Nationalist Ireland. 



136 The Irish Republic 

"Do Englishmen — we do not speak of Liberals and Home Rul- 
ers only, but of all decent, patriotic men — realize what this means, 
first in the absolute destruction of the hope of any friendly solu- 
tion of the constitutional relations of the two countries in the 
near future, and secondly, in the sowing of so rich a crop of 
alienation and of hate as may well make such a solution impos- 
sible for a generation? Of course, there are people, both here and 
in Ireland, to whom such a result would not be at all unwelcome, 
who would indeed regard the placing of Nationalist Ireland once 
more definitely under the heel of British power, and a reversion 
to the familiar policy and methods of Irish coercion, at least for 
our time, as cheaply bought at the cost of a few lives, and the 
laceration once more of the body and soul of Ireland. 

"But is Mr. Lloyd George of these, are the Liberal and Labour 
members of his government, are his Liberal and Labour sup- 
porters in the House of Commons, are the great mass of well- 
meaning and honest Englishmen ? 

"Of course, we shall be told that this is only half of the gov- 
ernment policy, that they also are converts, or at least assentors 
to Home Rule, and that the price of Home Rule, or at least its 
essential concomitant, is conscription, and that this is so, not 
merely, not even chiefly, because of the men whom conscription 
may draw to the army, but because the power to conscript is part 
of the essential prerogative of the Crown, and of Parliament, 
which administers that prerogative, and that to dispute it is rank 
rebellion and mere separatism. 

"Let us look at facts, and not confuse ourselves with theories. 
The fact is that, if anyone two years ago had proposed to impose 
conscription on Scotland or on Wales — we say nothing of Eng- 
land — against the unanimous resistance of any of those peoples, 
it would have been universally regarded as an outrage, and no 
statesman would have attempted it. Why, then, is it not an out- 
rage in the case of Ireland? Nor is the offer of a measure of 
Home Rule, even supposing it to be adequate in all other respects, 
any real compensation to Ireland for the imposition of conscrip- 
tion. 

"To begin with, she does not believe in it. She sees opinion in 
Ireland, the old Ascendency opinion which the convention had 
partly modified, now hardening against her; the Southern Union- 
ists beginning to draw back, and many of them loudly repudiating 
the concessions made by their representatives in the convention ; 
Ulster more alienated than ever, and declaring all its suspicions 
and all its hostility now more than justified; the English govern- 
ment inviting rebellion, were rebellion possible. 




JohnIMcGarry (Chicago) 
mchairman of thefamous "committee of one hundred" which 
t stood without wavering for ireland's cause in the dark- 
\ est hours of the struggle. / 



\ «^9 /T^ 



n^ 






The Irish Republic 137 

Are these conditions, conditions which the EngHsh govern- 
ment has itself created by taking power to conscript Ireland 
against her will, such as to make the promise of a real measure 
of Home Rule odier than mockery? And who shall say that Na- 
tionalist Ireland is not right? Who, looking at the matter hon- 
estly, can for a moment believe that, out of the chaos and strife 
they are proposing to create, the government will or can evolve 
anything but the fruits of strife and chaos? 

"What does a government deserve which lends itself to such a 
policy, and prepares for our common country mischiefs so great 
and far-reaching? Clearly by all and every means it should be 
restrained, or, if it cannot be restrained, then got rid of. 

"Not even the pressure of the war should prevent every pa- 
triotic Englishman from resisting by every means in his power 
such folly and such crime. Even now there are tens of thou- 
sands of men in Ireland who can ill be spared from a very differ- 
ent fighting front. How many more will be needed before the 
work is finished ? 

"And with what sort of face shall we appear at the Peace 
Conference, that day of judgment for political wrongdoers, with 
Ireland by our side, beaten, bleeding and accusing? Let anyone 
who doubts read the message of the king today to the American 
soldiers, and then consider how that message will look in the light 
of those ugly facts." 

In Northeast Ulster the Covenanter press made the most of 
that "No Popery" issue. The Belfast Nezvs Letter, in an article, 
under the heading, "The Pa[)al Enemy," said : 

"The action which the Roman Catholic Bishops have taken 
against conscription is opening the eyes of the British people to 
two facts that are well known to Irish Unionists. The first is that 
the Vatican has been the enemy of the Allies, and the friend of 
Germany all through the war, and the second is that Home Rule 
would place the enemy in power in Ireland, and give it the means 
of striking a fatal blow at the heart of the Empire. English news- 
papers which have been advocating Home Rule are astonished to 
find that Ulster is right, but they cannot deny that the evidence is 
conclusive. Home Rule would be Rome Rule, and that rule would 
be consistently hostile to England and the Empire, as well as to 
Irish Protestants. Is the government going to persist in the in- 
famous and treacherous policy of forcing a Home Rule bill 
through Parliament at the crisis of the Empire's fate? Is it 
going to put Ireland under the Roman Church, and subject Pro- 
testants to its tyranny, now that its hostility to England, the 
United States, and all free nations is openly declared?" 



138 The Irish Republic 

Perhaps the most violent assault upon the Catholics that had 
ever been published in a newspaper in Ireland was an editorial in 
the Belfast News Letter, May 31, 1918, commenting on the visit 
of the Prince of Wales to the Pope. It follows : 

"The visit of the Prince of Wales to the Pope has caused gen- 
eral surprise and regret, but his Royal Highness is not to blame, 
as he acted on the advice of the government. . . . The Brit- 
ish people have expressly repudiated the jurisdiction of the Bishop 
of Rome, and they care nothing for his opinion of them, which, 
even on moral questions, is more likely to be wrong than right. 
This new departure was a recognition of him as the head of a 
state, and therefore an offense against Italy, since it encouraged 
him to hope for the support of the government in his demand 
for the restoration of the temporal power. This gratuitous blun- 
der made it necessary for the Italian government to stipulate in a 
treaty that the Pope should not be allowed to take part in peace 
negotiations. It w'as not going to enter the war in order to bring 
about the dismemberment of Italy. . . . The Vatican was the 
enemy of the Allies from the first, and it is still their enemy. The 
Pope refrained from condemning German atrocities in Belgium 
and elsewhere, under the pretense that it was his duty to be neu- 
tral, and he even found excuses for the destruction of the Lusi- 
tania. When Cardinal Mercier and other Belgian Roman Cath- 
olics a[)pealed to him, he said it was his duty to hear both sides. 
But there is only one side to the invasion of Belgium. The Ger- 
man Chancellor admitted it was wrong, but the Pope has never 
gone so far. If he had been zealous for peace, or for international 
law and morality, he would have denounced the crime with which 
Germany started the war. But he was silent, and he has remained 
silent to this hour. Why ? Because the Kaiser has promised that 
a German victory will lead to the restoration of the temporal 
powef. One of the Pope's officials has been convicted of treason 
against Italy, and is a fugitive from justice. The defeat of the 
Italian army was brought about largely by the intrigue of priests. 
And the Vatican is the si)ecial enemy of England. It works un- 
ceasingly for her downfall. The anti-conscription riots in 
Quebec and the agitation by Archbishop Mannix in Australia are 
examples; and more recently wx have the resolutions of the Irish 
Roman Catholic Bishops, defying the Imperial Parliament and 
commanding collections in every parish on behalf of their illegal 
campaign. The mission to the Poi)e, as if he were head of a 
friendly state, instead of the most persistent enemy of England, is 
indefensible. The present government did not appoint it, but it 
is responsible for maintaining it, and it should take the earliest op- 



The Irish Republic 139 

portunity of delivering the country from an embarrassing en- 
tanglement which benefits only the enemy, and it is entirely to 
blame for agreeing yesterday to the Pope's request that our aero- 
planes should not molest (German cities, because, as it was the 
feast of Corpus Christi, there were religious processions in the 
streets. But the Pope showed no concern about the murder of 
innocent people in London and elsewhere in England, nor was 
he horrified when the Germans shelled a Paris congregation on 
Good Friday, nor when they deliberately dropped bombs on hos- 
pitals. It is only when the Germans sufTer, or are in danger of 
sufifering the punishment of their crimes, that his sensitive heart 
is touched. But the War Cabinet should have rejected his re- 
quest indignantly. . . . The British people will be justly 
indignant when they see that instead of a \Vin-the-\\'ar Cabinet, 
they have got a Please-the-Pope Cabinet." 

The Premier, Mr. Lloyd George, was understood to afford 
the color of governmental approval of the "No Popery" cry when, 
in reply to a Home Rule Memorial signed by sixty thousand 
Irishmen in England, he said: 

"The difficulties have not been rendered easier by the chal- 
lenge of the supremacy of the British Parliament by the Nation- 
alist and Roman Catholic hierarchy, in conjunction with the Sinn 
Feiners." 

The New York World, May 3, 1918, commenting on the 
premier's statement, said : 

"This plain statement of present-day fact is, unfortunately, 
complicated by the additional fact that four years ago, the Union- 
ists of Ulster, under the leadership of Sir Edward Carson, were 
allowed to 'challenge the supremacy of the British Parliament' by 
threatening Great Britain with civil war, and the government 
backed down. It was this challenge which convinced Germany 
that Great Britain would not dare to go to war over the invasion 
of Belgium. Yet, sir Edward Carson was subsequently taken into 
the British Cabinet, and the government's surrender to the Ulster 
rebels has been the inspiration both of Nationalists and Sinn Fein- 
ers, in defying conscription. If the British government had met 
the challenge of the Carsonites four years ago, it would not be 
obliged to meet the challenge of the other factions now." 

The London (England) Star said: "Mr. Lloyd George was 
once a Liberal. He was also once a Home Ruler. It is not easy 
to discover any trace of either in the incendiary letter which he 
has addressed to Mr. Burt. Last week. Lord Northclifife started 
a 'No Popery' crusade in the Times, in the teeth of indignant 



140 The Irish Republic 

protest by English Unionists who happened also to be Roman 
Catholics, including Sir Mark Sykes, M. P. Mr. George has lost 
no time in joining Lord Northcliffe." 

The regligious issue had now assumed a grave aspect with re- 
spect to the forces of the Allies in the field. The persistent villifi- 
cation of the Pope and Catholics generally was an attack on the 
religion of hundreds of thousands of fighting men in the allied 
armies, entirely dissociated from aspersions on Ireland for her 
anti-conscription stand. There was genuine fear that, if per- 
sisted in, the morale of large sections of the allied armies might be 
seriously undermined. Accordingly, the cooler heads set about 
to check the fires of bigotry that threatened to sweep the whole 
world, and, as a result, the propaganda immediately abated but 
not until scars were left which will not be eradicated in years. 
Meanwhile, official cognizance had been taken by the Vatican of 
the attacks. 

The Corriere d'ltalia, the semi-official Vatican organ, was 
prompted to comment on a statement made in the House of Com- 
mons by Mr. I^alfour, in which the foreign secretary inferentially 
was understood to asperse Cardinal Logue of Ireland. Renter's 
News Agency carried the following dispatch under a Rome date 
of April 20: "The Holy See has always left the Episcopacy of 
each country free to take what attitude it might think best in 
the internal affairs of its own country. Thus, whatever Cardinal 
Logue may consider it expedient to do about conscription in Ire- 
land cannot affect the impartiality or neutrality of the Vatican 
in this war, nor can it be considered a violation of the policy con- 
sistently followed by the Holy See since the war began." 

The IVestminster (London) Gaj:ette, April 29, 1918, said : 
"Whatever may be uncertain, this, at least, is evident — that the 
Irish trouble cannot be countered by a 'No Popery' stunt. Be our 
attitude towards the Roman Catholic clergy what it may, the in- 
troduction of new bitterness would be but the addition of folly to 
folly. The actions of the Irish hierarchy is an incident in political 
warfare. It neither adds to nor subtracts from the problem 
which we have to solve. The task of securing from Ireland sol- 
diers which are needed in the fighting line will not be made easier 
by a new excursion into religious controversy. The sole need of 
the moment is an honest and single-minded endeavor to straighten 
out the Irish tangle and to substitute good-will for suspicion and 
hostility." 

The Diarist of the same journal wrote: "I am not surprised 
to learn that the government, having taken their plunge into con- 
scription for Ireland, are growing more and more anxious about 




Hugh O'Neill 
chicago barrister's defense of anti-conscription stand 
made a strong impression back in old erin. it was the 
first news to trickle through from america. 



The Irish Republic 141 

the results of their poHcy. Apparently, and I judge this from the 
newspapers which are in closest touch with the Prime Minister, 
Mr. Lloyd (ieorge is greatly annoyed by the attitude of the Irish 
hierarchy. It never occurred to the government that the Cath- 
olic Church would throw itself on the side of the people in re- 
sisting conscription, although it might have made some inquiries 
on this point. If we are thinking merely of getting the Irish sit- 
uation right, to add a 'No Popery' campaign to the other trou- 
bles would be to make confusion worse confounded. Certainly 
an attempt to make the whole church responsible, whatever rea- 
sonable ground may be found for protest against the action of 
the Irish Bishops, would be resented by English Catholics, who, 
in proportion to their numbers, have shed their blood as willingly 
as Protestants in defense of the Empire." 

Cardinal Logue, in an interview granted Mr. George Leach, 
an English newspaper man, in the latter part of April, frankly dis- 
cussed Ireland's attitude on conscription. Mr. Leach's re]:)ort of 
the interview in part is as follows : 

"I asked the Cardinal what was the root of the Irish hostility 
to conscription, and he referred me to the official declaration of 
the Maynooth conference. He reinforced it with some consid- 
erations of his own, which may be called the human economic 
argument. It is perhaps the gravest indictment of English rule 
that during the last sixty or seventy years Ireland has lost nearly 
half her population. 

"The cardinal's point was that, by their emigration, caused or 
stimulated by an unpopular form of government, the country had 
already lost far more of her manhood that she could afiford. Emi- 
gration had been stopped during the war, but there was a great 
rush of recruits at the beginning — a rush which might have con- 
tinued, if England had behaved decently, and if the War Office 
at one time had not set itself against the raising of Irish divisions 
as such." 

"I put several cjuestions. 

"Question — Was the 'No Popery' cry likely to harm the 
church itself? 

"Answer — Not a bit of it, but if persisted in. it might do harm 
to the Allies. Leaving out of account the Irish and Continental 
Catholics fighting on the side of the Allies, he was told that forty 
per cent of the American soldiers were Catholics, either of Irish 
birth or Irish descent, and it was a stupid thing in BIngland to 
try to raise a foolish and false issue. The Catholics would see 
through it. but all the same they would not like it. 

"Question — Had the bishops now thrown themselves into the 



142 The Irish Republic 

arms of the Sinn Feiners? 

"Answer — No, they had not. He himself had always been 
against Sinn Fein as such, and had frequently said so. It was 
the British government themselves who were encouraging Sinn 
Fein by bringing forward conscription." 

In the flood of rejoinders that came from the Irish bishops, 
the Bishop of Down and Connor, in a concise statement, seemed to 
cover the entire ground, from the viewpoint of the hierarchy. Un- 
der the caption, "The Fires of Bigotry," the press reported him 
as follows : 

"Speaking at St. Malachy's, Belfast, yesterday, his Lordship, 
the Most Reverend Dr. MacRory, Bishop of Down and Connor, 
asked the congregation to pray with increased frequency and fer- 
vour that their dear country might be spared the horrors that 
would almost certainly follow upon any attempt to enforce con- 
scription. There was still, he said, great ground for hope that 
the British government would become convinced of the futility 
and madness of the project. Madness it certainly was; for while 
it would create, as was said, a new western front, antagonize men 
of Irish blood throughout America and the British Colonies, and 
hold England as the champion of the rights of small nations up 
to ridicule for trampling on the right of self-determination in one 
of the oldest nations of Western Christendom, it would yet fur- 
nish comparatively few soldiers for the British army. 

"The steady stream of emigration resulting from bad laws and 
worse administration had largely robbed Ireland of her manhood, 
and the great bulk of those who were left were needed for the 
present largely-increased tillage, and, moreover, the soldiers they 
would raise by conscription would certainly never have their heart 
in their work, and would be a source of weakness rather than of 
strength. 

"His Lordship w'ent on to say that the Irish bishops, with his 
Eminence Cardinal Logue at their head, had been violently at- 
tacked in certain English and Irish newspapers for their opposi- 
tion to conscription ; but it was some consolation to remember that 
in the past four years, those same papers had been extolling as 
heroic the patriotism of Cardinal Mercier in standing up for his 
Belgian people against German oppression. 

"Yes, Cardinal Mercier was a hero, but, when our illustrious 
Irish Cardinal, a man of God and of peace, ripe in years and in 
virtue, beloved by all his people, dared to stand up against a 
tyranny ten times worse than anything of the kind attempted in 
Belgium by Germany, a tyranny that does not merely enforce 
labour, but seeks to impose a blood-tax, and, in defiance of a na- 



The Irish Republic 143 

tional protest, strikes at a nation's life, these self-contradictory 
scribes raise a cry of aiTected horror, and seek to stir up the 
fires of religious bigotry. Even his Holiness, Benedict XV, was 
attacked though he was as little responsible for the decision of 
the Irish Bishops as the editor of the Times, and we were even 
threatened with a 'No Popery' campaign. 

"His Lordship wondered did these scribes, when they wrote 
such stuff, advert to the fact that England's allies in this war were 
Catholic France, Catholic Italy, and Catholic Belgium, and that 
a great part of the American and Colonial armies was made up 
of Catholics, most of them, too, of Irish blood. The best service 
the censor could do to the Empire would be to supi)ress all such 
senseless effusions of religious bigotry. As to the Pope, seeing 
that his Holiness had not interfered to oppose the conscription 
of Catholics in England and Canada, nor even the conscription of 
priests for military service in France, it ought to have been suf- 
ficiently evident that he had nothing to do with the opposition of- 
fered to conscription by the Irish bishops. No, that opposition 
was, and is, based mainly on the principle that, if a nation has 
any rights at all, it has the right to say when and why it shall shed 
its blood, and also on the ground that no i)ower has any moral 
right to coerce young Irishmen to fight in the alleged interests of 
freedom until they have been allowed to enjoy freedom for them- 
selves. Irish bishops, like Irishmen generally, could not forget 
that, for the last forty years, the constitutional demand for self- 
government had been pressed in a constitutional manner by more 
than eighty per cent of the Irish representatives, and they all 
knew with what result. His Lordship went on to say that he was 
delighted there was no need to bring the question of religion into 
the matter. Very many non-Catholics, even in the North of Ire- 
land, were equally opposed to conscription. In his own diocese, 
both at Ballycastle, and, he believed, at Ballymoney, Catholics and 
non-Catholics had together held large meetings in opposition to 
conscription." 

Under the caption, "Ireland's Danger; People Must Not Play 
the Enemy's Game," the London (England) Herald presented a 
picture of what was now going on in Ireland in a special dispatch 
from its correspondent in Ireland, as follows: 

"British troops have been poured into Ireland, armoured 
trains, armoured cars, barbed wire apparatus, machine guns 
abound. Troops move about everywhere, and the attempt is 
made to overawe the populace by a great display of force. 
The danger is that the action of some soldier or officer may 
set the match to a blaze which will involve the whole coun- 



144 The Irish Republic 

try. Unfortunately, Irish history teaches us that from '98 on- 
wards there have not been wanting persons in high places 
who have goaded the people deliberately into active resistance 
in order to gain some supposed advantage for England. 
The graves of Wexford are an eloquent testimony to the work in 
this direction of Lord Clare. The weaker the British government 
the graver is the danger of such action, and if the Irish people can 
be goaded into armed insurrection, before an attempt is made to 
impose conscription by an annoying and insolent display of force, 
such action would place the Irish in an unfavorable light before 
the British people." 

There was some speculation as to whether the government, 
having failed with conscription, intended to carry out its an- 
nounced purpose of bringing in a new Home Rule bill. wSir Ed- 
ward Carson again uttered defiance to the government. This was 
on May 7, 1918, when no man knew or could even vision whether 
Germany or the Allies were going to win. He flung out the threat 
of civil war in Ireland, regardless of the world war, if the govern- 
ment persisted in Home Rule. He said : 

"I have said nothing of Ulster. Loyal Ulster is waiting calm 
and with confidence. Our people do not believe that either Mr. 
Bonar Law or Mr. Walter Long could ever be a party to any bill 
which did not carry out their specific pledges to Ulster, so freely 
and so frequently made. But this calm, let it be recollected, is 
an indication not of weakness but of strength. I appeal, there- 
fore, to the Unionist members of the government and to the 
Unionist Party to compel a reconsideration of this matter before 
we have a fratricidal conflict at a time when our whole energies 
should be devoted to the prosecution of the war." 

In the midst of the "fires of bigotry" the following card in 
a Dublin newspaper was all but overlooked : 

"The following protest against conscription, dated the 17th 
instant, is sent to the press : 'We, the undersigned writers, feel 
compelled to appeal and protest against the enforcement of con- 
scription in our country, believing, as we do, that such action will 
destroy all hope of peace in Ireland and good-will towards Eng- 
land in our lifetime. 

"'(Signed) A. Gregory, W. B. Yeats, James Stephens, George 
Russell ("AE."), Douglas Hyde ("An Craoibhin").' " 



145 



CHAPTER XXY 



ENGLISH LABOR TAKES A STAND 



OF more pressing concern to the British government at the 
moment, doubtless, was the attitude of organized labor in 
England. The notion that the Irish stand was generally con- 
demned in England is erroneous. Ireland's strongest sympathizers 
were in England. There is genuine affection among the English 
masses for Ireland and the Irish. W hile the ruling classes and 
the more intolerant Protestants were beside themselves with rage 
(and we can readily understand their thought, since the Empire 
was in danger and Ireland apparently was not doing her share) 
the masses of the English did not consider the immediate act so 
much as the cause — the generations of blundering leading up to it. 
The average Briton, jealous of his individual rights, clearly un- 
derstood the Irish mind. Accordingly, organized labor in Eng- 
land, a general breakdown of which must have been fatal to the 
British war machine, at once took an unequivocal stand. The joint 
executives of the English Trade Union Congress and of the 
Labor Party addressed the following appeal to the Prime Min- 
ister and his colleagues in the government on the question of 
conscription in Ireland : 

"When the Military Service bill was before the country or- 
ganized labour declared its opposition to the proposal to enforce 
conscription upon the Irish people without their consent. We had 
information which enabled us to gauge the strength of Irish feel- 
ings and to form an estimate as to the fierce resentment which 
would be excited. That we were correct in our forecasting of the 
position is only too obvious. 

'Tt must be clearly evident to the government that an attempt 
to enforce conscription will mean not merely the shedding of the 
blood of thousands of Irishmen and Englishmen and Scotsmen, 
too ; but also the maintenance of a huge permanent army of occu- 
pation in Ireland. 

"Today, every soldier is needed at the Western front. Yet the 
government is proposing to take a course wdiich will involve the 
withdrawal of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to engage in 
a civil war which will outrage the conscience of the civilized 
world. Nay, more. Irishmen are scattered wide over the world 
— in America, in the Dominions, in Great Britain itself, and there 
are large numbers in our armies on the W' estern front. 



146 The Irish Republic 

"The tragedy cannot be merely local or confined to Ireland. It 
may be easily the beginning of a world tragedy in which our last 
hopes of a fairer future will be extinguished. 

"It is to be remembered that the active co-operation of Ire- 
land is now vital to the maintenance of the full supplies alike of 
the armies in France and of the British people. 

"During 1917, the part played by Ireland in providing food for 
Great Britain was only a little inferior to that of the United States, 
and during the present year a greatly increasing production may 
be confidently counted on. 

"The consequence of exasperating the Irish people at such a 
moment might well be ruinous to the realization of this pro- 
gramme, and might so reduce the food supplies of Great Britain 
as to convert what is already a serious situation into a critical or 
calamitous one. 

"With all these facts and terrible anticipations in mind, we con- 
fidently appeal to the government at once to take the necessary 
steps to avert the appalling disaster which now threatens our 
country and our national good name. 

"We appeal to them on grounds of principle and of expediency 
alike, not to violate the national conscience and not to jeopardize 
the whole future of this country and its allies and their success 
in the war by imposing conscription upon a nation without its own 
consent and in face of this certainty of the most determined and 
united opposition. 

"At the least, we appeal to them to give an open and unmis- 
takable public promise that no proclamation applying conscrip- 
tion to Ireland will be issued until an Irish Parliament, express- 
ing the real will of tlie Irish people, has come fully into existence. 
"With the possibilities involved in a serious prolongation of the 
war, a restless, angered, estranged, lawless Ireland is serious to 
contemplate, and we appeal to the government not only for the 
sake of Ireland, but for the sake of our own country, of our allies, 
and of the future of the democracy of the whole civilized world." 

The right Honorable J. H. Thomas, M. P., Labor member for 
Derby, one of the most influential labor leaders in England, and 
an unswerving supporter of the government in prosecuting the 
war, came to Dublin on April 23 and addressed a large meeting of 
Irish labor forces in the Mansion House. He said that conscrip- 
tion was wrong, and so far as Home Rule was concerned, "noth- 
ing was so mean, nothing was so contemptible," and nothing, in 
his judgment, "more entitled them to complain, than the sugges- 
tion that their centuries-old claim of self-government was to be 
given to them as a bargain for accepting something that they ab- 



The Irish Republic 147 

solutely detested." He believed that a "profound blunder" had 
been made. 

Conscription for Ireland was now impossible. Despite the 
despatch of Lord French to Ireland, with the original in- 
tention of imposing the "blood tax" ruthlessly, accompanied by 
a flood of propaganda let loose on the whole world in scathing 
reprobation of Ireland, the government soon ditched conscrip- 
tion, and also with it any intention it may have had of bringing 
forth a new Home Rule bill, as the Premier had intimated would 
be done in conjunction with conscription. The effect of the gov- 
ernment's surrender was to further quicken the national spirit in 
Ireland and to glorify her pride, but before the government re- 
luctantly admitted its impotency to deal intelligently with the sit- 
uation, Ireland was yet to feel again the bitter sting of the most 
effective propaganda that can be launched against an individual 
or a nation — the charge of treason in times of war. 



48 



CHAPTER XXVI 



NEWS FROM AMERICA 



WITH conscription now as dead as the [)roverbial door nail, 
tl'e "free Ireland" forces took a breathing spell, and began 
speculating on the future. 

One of the first questions they asked was as to how their 
friends in America were taking their opposition to conscription. 
The British government was in control of the source of communi- 
cation and the censorship had become very drastic. Only such in- 
formation as the government wanted to get out of Ireland was 
permitted to pass the censor, and, for the most part, the same was 
true of all news coming in. But, little by little, the attitude of the 
friends in America trickled in. The leaders in Ireland were pre- 
pared to be "misunderstood," as they put it, in the heat of the 
great war, when the whole world was divided into two armed 
camps, and were even prepared for something of a reaction 
against them in America until such time as Ireland's case 
could be fully set forth. 

It was, therefore, with profound thanksgiving that a statement 
issued by Peter J. Peel, who had just been elected President of 
the Irish Fellowship Club in Chicago, reached Ireland. This in- 
terview indicated to the leaders that the anti-conscription stand 
was not being misinterpreted on the part of intelligent Irishmen in 
the United States. It was given wide circulation throughout Ire- 
land by publication in the Freeman's Journal of May 15. The 
Freeman's account follows : 

"The new president of the Irish Fellowship Club is Mr. Peter 
J. Peel. The Chicago Citizen describes him as an Irish-American 
of whom all Irish-Americans have good reason to be proud. 'He 
will bring to the duties of the honourable and honorary office for 
which he has been selected by his fellow-countrymen — citizens of 
America of Irish birth or descent — a love for the old land coming 
with him from the town where he was born — Dublin — and the old 
town by the Shannon where he was raised and which he still re- 
gards as the "old home town." ' 

"In a recent interview on Irish conscription. Mr. Peel, after 
quoting in detail the figures of Ireland's voluntary contribution, 
said : 'That makes 230,000 men all told from Ireland. A short 
time ago the British government presented to Parliament also an 
official estimate of the number of men still left in Ireland who 
would be available for service if the draft were applied to Ire- 




Peter J. Peel 

WHOSE INTERVIEW IN CHICAGO, AS PRESIDENT OF IRISH FELLOW- 
SHIP CLUB, HEARTENED THE LEADERS IN IRELAND. 



The Irish Republic 149 

land. That official estimate was 161,239 men. 

" 'Now, as to the question whether those 161,239 ought to be 
drafted or not. A law establishing an Irish Parliament has been 
on the statute book of England since 1914, but it has not been put 
into operation. Ireland feels that only an Irish Parliament has the 
right to conscript Irishmen in their own country. England would 
not dream of applying the draft to Canada, or Australia, or South 
Africa. They would not allow that. Why, then, should Ireland 
allow it? Ireland has done splendidly in support of this war, in 
spite of the opposition of the extremist minority. If an Irish Par- 
liament is set up now, as it ought to be, it will be able to help 
further in supporting the war. This is what all patriotic Irish- 
men want to see. If England is unwise enough to try and do in 
Ireland what Canada or Australia would not allow, she would be 
hindering and not helping the successful prosecution of the war, 
for her action would be resisted in Ireland and resented by Irish- 
men in all parts of the world. I am sure she will not do anything 
so foolish as to try and force the draft on Ireland. 

" 'It would be wrong, and in addition, it would not pay. The 
way to get more men from Ireland for the war is to put self-gov- 
ernment in operation there. That can be and ought to be done at 
once. It would rally all Ireland against the Germans, and would 
make Irishmen the world over more enthusiastic than ever in their 
support of the war.' " 

At about the same time a copy of the Chicago Tribune reached 
Dublin, carrying an editorial which, while not supporting Ireland's 
opposition to conscription, yet displayed a sympathetic under- 
standing of Ireland's attitude. This encouraged the leaders in the 
belief that the historic case for Ireland was not to be thrown 
out of court or obscured entirely by the desperate situation pre- 
vailing in Ireland. 

In a few days a copy of the Chicago Daily News arrived, car- 
rying an article which banished the last of any fears the leaders 
had as to Irish-American sentiment in the States. The article in 
the News, which also was reprinted in the Nationalist papers, was 
in part as follows : 

"Irish liberty and Irish independence before conscription. This 
is set up by local leaders who have been fighting for the liberation 
of Ireland. Joseph P. Mahony, former Senate leader on the 
minority side ; Attorney Hugh O'Neill, Judge George F. Barrett, 
and other students of Irish history- take the stand that Ireland 
should be given the same consideration as was Australia and Can- 
ada, namely, that Ireland's people should be granted the right to 
vote on the question of conscription. 



150 The Irish Republic 

"Attorney O'Neill was busy selling Liberty Bonds among his 
associates at the bar, when a reporter for the Daily iVeius asked 
him for an expression. 'Why should Ireland stand for conscrip- 
tion?' was the opening sentence by Attorney O'Neill. 'Why 
should they be called upon to fight for the liberties of other people 
while they themselves are in chains ? England's avowed purpose 
on entering" the war was to establish the rights and liberties of 
small nations, to advance the cause of permanent world peace, and 
to make the whole world free. . . . The Irish people are not 
willing to rush madly into an Armageddon to put Serbia and Rou- 
mania and other small nations back upon the map. They believe 
in the principle enunciated by our great President — "That no 
peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and ac- 
cept the principles that governments derive their just powers from 
the consent of the governed," and that peoples . . . "are not 
to be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty, as if they 
were mere chattels and pawns in the game." ' 

"Attorney Mahony, who said he learned his first thoughts in 
Irish history and her fight for liberty as he sat upon the knee of 
his father, asked that England first give Ireland her independence, 
and then conscription. T hold that England has no right of law 
to conscript the men of Ireland,' he said. 'She has no right to 
do so in Canada and Australia, which are provinces of England. 
Ireland is a union, and her people should be granted the right to 
vote on conscription. Australia voted it down, and in Canada it 
would have been voted down, if it were not for an act passed 
which did not permit a free expression, and in some parts of 
Canada, received defiant opposition to the result of the vote.' 

"Judge Barrett hopes that the English Government will meet 
the crisis in the right spirit. 'l'2very Irishman wants the liberty 
that President Wilson told us the small nation should have,' said 
Judge Barrett. 'AH of us want to win the war, and Ireland should 
be given her independence, and there will be no question of what 
the Irish people will do. I see no reason why the people of Ire- 
land should be denied a vote on conscription when Australia and 
Canada obtained it. If England will free Ireland, this serious sit- 
uation will be past.' " 

As other news came in, came the news from Chicago of the 
organization of the Committee of One Hundred, of which Geo. E. 
Gorman was chairman and John A. McGarry head of the execu- 
tive committee. This organization was reported to be standing out 
as scjuarely for "Ireland's rights" as were the leaders in Ireland. 

Then the anti-conscription leaders in Ireland took a fresh reef 
in their belts, as the saying goes, polished up their rhetoric and. 



The Irish Republic 151 

fired with new zeal, awaited any action the government might 
take. 

They were convinced by the news from Chicago that Ireland's 
stand would not be wholly misunderstood at the World's Court. 



152 



CHAPTER XXVII 



STILL ANOTHER GERMAN PLOT 



THE free Ireland forces had defeated conscription and now 
calmly awaited the next move by the government. It came 
swiftly. It w^as a formal announcement to the w'orld that another 
"German plot" had been unearthed in Ireland, involving the Sinn 
Fein leaders. 

Just how much the bi-election campaign in the East Cavan di- 
vision contributed to the government's latest step was conjectural. 
Mr. Arthur Griffith, one of the founders and vice president of 
Sinn Fein, v\^as up for the vacancy. The Constitutional National- 
ists were supporting Mr. O'Hanlon, a thoroughgoing Irish pa- 
triot, who doubtless w-as about ninety-nine per cent Sinn Fein at 
heart. With the horror of threatened conscription still fresh in 
their minds, the Irish people had no time now for controversial 
essays on a point of expediency. Such patriotism as fired the 
masses did not take any account of expediency, which seemed to 
be the main contention of the Parliamentarians. The people 
were so thoroughly aroused in their detestation of English rule 
that the cardinal principle of the Dillon Parliamentarians w^as the 
one thing that hit them cold, for the Parliamentarians insisted that 
the salvation of Ireland could best be worked out in the English 
Parliament itself. The Sinn Fein doctrine was the precise anti- 
thesis, namely, that, though elected to Parliament, they would not 
dishonor the soul of Ireland by taking these seats, since by so 
doing it would be tantamount to recognizing England's right to 
make laws for Ireland. Ireland did not stop to argue the political 
or economic issues here raised. It only felt that, live or die, sur- 
vive or perish, Sinn Fein oilered the only sound and attractive ap- 
peal — complete severance from English interference. The East 
Cavan election now in full swing presented the psychologic op- 
portunity for Sinn Fein. Notwithstanding the military proclama- 
tions the campaign offered the boon of historic "privileged state- 
ments," which Englishmen themselves held to zealously even since 
the Magna Charta. Accordingly, Sinn Fein orators flocked to 
East Cavan and their speeches were not calculated to aid the gov- 
ernment in restoring peaceful conditions. 

Sinn Fein and the Parliamentarians, w^ho had been united to 
a man against conscription, broke definitely on the question of 
party principles. This break came at the joint meeting in 
Ballaghadcrreen on May 5th. More than fifteen thousand peo- 




Maud Gone MacP.ride 
nimf of trft ands most beautiful women who was deported 

AND THROWN INTO PRISON BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. . 



The Irish Republic 153 

pie had gathered to hear Mr. Dillon, leader of the Parliamentar- 
ians, and Mr. De Valera, chief of the Sinn Feiners, present their 
arguments. The throng was made up largely of Mr. Dillon's 
constituents, and his fine oratorical periods met with boisterous 
approval. How was De Valera, halting in his speech, in no wise 
an orator, to match Dillon's ringing appeal? There were even 
some hostile demonstrations as the boyish De Valera started to 
answer Dillon, but his sincerity, his simplicity and his pure love 
of the old Ireland soon disarmed and then captured the great mul- 
titude. It was what he said and not how he said it that sounded 
the death knell of the Parliamentary party. He said that the 
British government had used its military strength to destroy that 
ancient land, a power which, even for the last hundred years, had 
given examples with respect to Ireland of every claim that the 
English people and the English government laid against Ger- 
many. It was a government that had wiped out, within the last 
sixty or seventy years, four and a half millions or so of the Irish 
people, a government which gave the only example of a race de- 
stroyed by foreign rule. It was this government that asked Ire- 
land for the last final tribute. He knew the people would never 
give it, and that they "would not be such slaves as to go at the 
bidding of their taskmasters." 

Then, as if inspired, he delivered the great blow, when he 
said: "We are not afraid of death. It is not the craven fear of 
death that keeps us from the world war. It is common sense that 
keeps us, and if they dare to try their conscription act upon this 
country, they will have proof that there are yet men living in 
Ireland," 

It was the Sinn Feiners who were striking the deep responsive 
chord in the breasts of the people. To the government these 
leaders were the real menace, not the Constitutional Nationalists, 
and, no doubt, in the heat of some of their inflammable speeches, 
they did raise a suspicion that they were sympathizers with Eng- 
land's enemies in the world war. 

Whatever may have been the real motive behind the action, 
the government decided to strike, and on the night of May 17-18, 
carrying out carefully matured plans, the military, the constabu- 
lary, and the Dublin Metropolitan Police threw out a dragnet that 
extended from Cape Clear to the Giant's Causeway, arresting and 
throwing in jail, prisons and police stations the known leaders of 
Sinn Fein, as well as scores of sympathizers. 

The following morning the government issued its proclama- 
tion. It stated unequivocally that another German plot had been 



154 The Irish Republic 

foiled, and followed this immediately with the rushing of the pris- 
oners to Kingstown harbor, where they were loaded on a gunboat 
and deported to England, to be there lodged in English jails, pris- 
ons and internment camps. 

The masses of the people took no stock in the government's 
charge of a German plot. They believed it was another plot on 
the part of the government to further ruin Ireland in the eyes of 
the world. They did not stop to consider, in fact, whether there 
was a German plot or whether a crime had been committed. In 
their minds nothing was a crime that was aimed at English rule. 
But what they did see, standing out in their minds like another 
horror, was the terrible word DEPORTATION. The old ascend- 
ency crowd, they believed, was up to its old tricks, and their 
minds went back to the days of King James, to the days of the 
Henrys, to the days of Elizabeth, and to the days of Cromwell. 
And in their ears rang again the tyrant's contempt : "To hell 
or Connaught !" 

The humiliation struck deep — England's denial of the right of 
Irishmen to be tried in Ireland for crimes alleged to have been 
committed in Ireland. De Valera was one of those arrested and 
deported. Whereas formerly he had been simply one of many 
defiers of rule by "the foreigner," he now became the idol of the 
masses, and his party principles became their very religion. In 
that one day, not only the new leaders, but a new party was en- 
shrined in the hearts of the masses. Constitutional Parliamen- 
tarianism was dead. 

Mr. Dillon saw the danger confronting his party and he im- 
mediately issued an appeal to the American people to remain 
steadfast in their support of the Nationalists. In the course of 
this appeal, he said : 

"The two great forces which have been the root and cause of 
Ireland's troubles in recent years have been stupidity and insin- 
cerity of the British government, which has obstinately refused, 
under the dictation of Sir Edward Carson, to apply in Ireland 
the principles for which the Allies are fighting in Europe ; and, 
secondly, the unlimited financial resources supplied to Sinn Fein 
from New York. I, therefore, feel justified in making an urgent 
appeal to all those of Irish blood in the United States to support 
our party in Ireland, which is fighting for Irish liberty, without 
betraying the cause of liberty in other lands. . . . My atten- 
tion has been directed to statements that I and the Irish Party, 
of which I am leader, have adopted Sinn Fein methods, and joined 
the Sinn Fein party. These statements are utterly unfounded and 
false. So far from that being the case, I am more than ever con- 



The Irish Republic 155 

vinced that the policy of Sinn Fein is wrong, fooHsh, and bound 
to end in defeat and disaster. Even during the last three weeks, 
while in the Mansion House Conference the Sinn Fein leaders co- 
operated with us in resisting the enforcement of conscription in 
the British Parliament, they absolutely refused to agree to a 
party truce and continued to denounce us because we believed in 
constitutional methods, because we aimed at a settlement based 
on full freedom and self-government under a friendly settlement 
with Great Britain, and because we adhered to the declaration of 
Mr. Redmond at the outbreak of the war, and believe that the 
cause of the Allies is the cause of freedom throughout the world." 

Mr. Dillon was fighting for his party's life, but his detestation 
of English rule in Ireland was just as pure, apparently, as that of 
the most rabid Sinn Feiner. While realizing the jeopardy in 
which Sinn Fein had placed his party, he continued his co-opera- 
tion with Sinn Fein against conscription and was one of the first 
to denounce the government for deporting the Sinn Fein leaders. 

"It is difficult to understand," he said, "why the government 
took action at this particular moment, and why, in Lord French's 
proclamation, the alleged German plot should be mixed up with 
conscription, unless on the assumption that the main purpose in 
the minds of the government just now is to poison American 
opinion against the Irish nation. The charge made in Lord 
French's proclamation against the Sinn Fein prisoners is extreme- 
ly serious, and the method adopted by the government is, so far 
as I know, unprecedented in British history. They have arrested 
and deported these men to England without any definite charge 
being made in legal form against them, and without any statement 
as to whether it is intended to bring them to trial or not. Mean- 
while, Ireland waits for proof of the alleged pro-German plot. 
For the past three years, the British government and Sir Edward 
Carson have done the work of Germany in Ireland more effectively 
than any other agency that I know of. Three years ago, Ireland 
was in the war with as much enthusiasm as any of the allied 
nations, and has sent to the front a full proportion of her people 
compared to great Britain or to the dominions of the Crown, and 
Irish soldiers have been in the van of the battle, and at the post 
of danger on every one of the allied fronts. All that has been 
changed by what Mr. Lloyd George himself was obliged to de- 
scribe, when Minister of War, as 'stupidity amounting to malig- 
nity' on the part of the war office and the government." 

The ])arty went down with its boots on. Possibly not dur- 
ing the bitter fight had there been reduced to writing a more 
severe and at the same time dignified indictment of England's 



156 The Irish Republic 

alleged double dealing in Ireland than the statement issued by the 
party after it became apparent that conscription would not be en- 
forced. A meeting was held at 39 Upper O'Connell Street. The 
leaders present were : Messrs. Boland, Brady, Byrne, Clancy, 
Condon, Cosgrave, Crumley, Cullinan, Devlin, Dillon, Donnelly, 
Doris, Dufify, Capt. Esmonde, Farrell, Field, Ffrench, Fitzpatrick, 
Flavin, Gwynn, Hearn, Harbison, Hayden, Joyce, Kelly, Kennedy, 
Kilbride, M'Neill, M'Ghee, F. E. Meehan, P. J. Meehan, Malloy, 
Muldoon, Murphy, J. D. Nugent, O'Donnell, O'Dowd, O'Shaugh- 
nessy, O'Shee, Reedy, Scanlan, Sheehy, Smyth, White, Whitty. 

Mr. Dillon presented the statement he had prepared, which was 
unanimously adopted. It is as follows : 

"The clause in the Man-Power Act, giving power to the gov- 
ernment to apply conscription to Ireland by Order in Council, was 
carried largely under the influence of an impression created by 
the statements of ministers that no attempt would be made to 
use the power until an Irish Parliament and a responsible Irish 
government had been called into existence. 

"The frequent postponement of the introduction of the prom- 
ised Home Rule bill, and the information which has leaked out 
as to the proceedings of the drafting committee, together with 
recent speeches of ministers, have confirmed us in the opinion 
that the government have not and had not, at the time of the 
recent debates on the Man-Power bill, any real intention of intro- 
ducing or passing a Home Rule bill, such as would ofifer the 
slightest hope of a settlement of the Irish national demand. 

"The latest developments are calculated to lead to the convic- 
tion that the government have no intention of producing any bill 
at all ; and that all the promises made were uttered simply for the 
purpose of deceiving the House of Commons and the British 
public, and above all, for the purpose of deceiving the American 
government and the American people, and the allied European 
nations, and prejudicing the cause of Ireland in their eyes. 

"While we absolutely adhere to our repeated declaration that 
no body has a right to impose conscription on the Irish nation 
except a Parliament freely elected by the Irish people, we desire 
to say any attempt to enforce conscription would be not only a 
gross outrage on the national right of Ireland, but a new and 
infamous breach of faith on the part of the British government — 
a proceeding which, had it been carried out by the German gov- 
ernment, would be denounced in England as a peculiarly odious 
piece of Prussianism. 

"Meanwhile, all the machinery of propaganda controlled by 
the British government has been set in motion to blacken the 




DE VALERA (SEATED AND HATLESS) AT THE HISTORIC MEETING IN 
BALLAGHADERREEN WHERE HE ANNOUNCED HIS "NO COMPROM- 
ISE" DECISION AS TO PARTY UNITY. JOHN DILLON IS SPEAKING. 



iHE Irish Republic 157 

name of Ireland in America, and to prejudice the American peo- 
ple and the American government against the Irish nation. 

"We feel it to be our duty, as the elected representatives of 
the Irish nation, to appeal most earnestly to the people of America 
and to the American government not to be deceived by these prop- 
agandist misrepresentations, but to listen to the statement of Ire- 
land's case coming from Irishmen in sympathy with the national 
aspirations of the people of Ireland, and qualified to speak on be- 
half of the Irish nation. 

"We beg of the American people and the American govern- 
ment, in memory of the bonds of sympathy which have existed 
between the American and the Irish nations ever since the founda- 
tion of the Republic, to urge upon their British allies the duty 
of immediately applying in the case of Ireland those principles 
of democratic freedom and national self-determination so mag- 
nificently set forth in the declarations of President Wilson, the 
benefit of which is denied to Ireland, while the Irish people are 
called on to fight for them in foreign lands." 

But while holding Mr. Dillon in the highest esteem for his 
past work, the Irish nation opened its heart and embraced Sinn 
Fein, .gladly. 



158 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE government's CHARGE 

ON the morning of Saturday, the 18th, knots of people could 
be seen in the principal cities of Ireland, reading the proc- 
lamation that was posted on bulletin boards. It was issued by 
Lord French, the new Lord-Lieutenant, and Edward Shortt, the 
new chief Secretary, and was as follows: 

"By the Lord-Lieutenant General and General Governor of 
Ireland. 

"FRENCH. 

"WHEREAS, It has come to our knowledge that certain sub- 
jects of His Majesty, the King, domiciled in Ireland, have con- 
spired to enter into, and have entered into, treasonable communi- 
cation with the German enemy ; 

"AND WHEREAS, Such treachery is a menace to the fair 
fame of Ireland and its glorious military record, a record which 
is a source of intense pride to a country whose sons have always 
distinguished themselves and fought with such heroic valour in 
the past, in the same way as thousands of them are now fighting 
in this war ; 

"AND WHEREAS, Drastic measures must be taken to pu: 
down this German plot, which measures will be solely directed 
against that plot ; 

"NOW, THEREFORE, \VK, THE LORD-LIEUTENANT 
GENERAL AND GOVERNOR GENERAL OF IRELAND, 
have thought fit to issue this OUR PROCLAMATION declaring 
and it is hereby declared as follows : 

"That it is the duty of all loyal subjects of his Majesty to 
assist in every way his Majesty's government in Ireland to sup- 
press this treasonable conspiracy and to defeat the treacherous 
attempt of the Germans to defame the honour of Irishmen for 
their own ends. 

"That we hereby call upon all loyal subjects of his Majesty in 
Ireland to aid in crushing the said conspiracy, and, so far as in 
them lies, to assist in securing the effective prosecution of the war 
and the welfare and safety of the Empire ; 

"That, as a means to this end, we shall cause still further steps 
to be taken to facilitate and encourage t'oluntary enlistment in 
Ireland in his Majesty's forces, in the hope that, zvithout resort to 
compulsion, the contribution of Ireland to those forces may be 
brought up to its proper strength and made to correspond to the 



The Irish Republic 159 

contributions of other parts of the Empire. 

"Given at his Majesty's Castle of DubUn this sixteenth day 
of May, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen. 

"EDWARD SHORTT." 

Beside this proclamation was pasted another one, signed by 
Sir Bryan Mahon, Commander of the Crown forces in Ireland, 
forbidding meetings and parades for thirty days. At the bottom 
was this line: "God Save the King." 

Ireland's reply to the French proclamation was a loud guffaw, 
accompanied with the demand that the government produce its 
proofs, and the further demand that the arrested leaders be tried 
in Ireland. 

A meeting of the defense conference was immediately called at 
the Mansion House, presided over by Lord Mayor O'Neill. After 
electing Professor Eoin MacNeill and Alderman Thomas Kelly 
to the vacancies on the conference caused by the arrest of De 
Valera and Griffith, the following statement was issued : 

"The conference, speaking on behalf of every section of Irish 
Nationalists, condemns the deportation to England of our col- 
leagues, Messrs. De Valera and Griffith, and their fellow-pri? 
oners. 

"We charge it is an attempt to discredit and disrupt Ireland''- 
united resistance to conscription, and this upon the charge or alle- 
gation calculated to make a fair trial impossible for them in Eng- 
land, and to prejudice the cause of the Irish nation in friendly 
countries abroad. 

"We assert the ancient constitutional right of Irishmen to be 
arraigned in their own country, and to be tried by their own 
countrymen ; and we charge that the denial of that right is a viola- 
tion of the first principles of justice and liberty, for the defense 
of which England claims the alliance of democratic nations. 

"We deplore the attem])t in the proclamation of Field Marshal 
French to poison the English mind against the Irish prisoners by 
the sensational allegation of 'a conspiracy in Ireland to enter into 
treasonable communication with the German enemy.' 

"When Field Marshal French calls on the Irish people 'to as- 
sist the government in every way to crush this conspiracy,' all 
Nationalists must recall it is the habitual instrument of British 
government to blacken and assail Irish leaders in order to effec- 
tuate their own objects, and that charges of assassination were 
made against Charles Stewart Parnell by means of a forged letter 
published on the day when a perpetual Coercion Act for Ireland 
was passed through its second reading in 1887, and that this 
forgery was availed of by important members of the present min- 



160 The Irish Republic 

istry to justify such legislation to the world. 

"The circumstances of the moment are trying, but we are 
strong in the confidence that our countrymen will continue to ob- 
serve an imperturbable calmness, coupled with unshakable deter- 
mination to be faithful at all hazards to the sacred pledge of na- 
tional resistance to conscription, which practically the entire Irish 
nation have now taken. 

"While standing steadfastly on our good right, we shall not 
cease to appeal to all friends of human freedom throughout the 
civilized world to inquire for themselves whether the present at- 
tempt to force civil war upon the Irish people on a transparently 
false pretext of military expediency does not really cover a wicked 
plot of English politicians to relieve themselves from their broken 
pledges to Ireland, in view of their profession that they have en- 
tered into a world war with the object of securing the right of 
self-determination for every other small nation in Europe." 

The Irish press, with the exception of the Unionist papers, 
denounced the government roundly, ridiculed Lord French's proc- 
lamation and called upon the authorities immediately to produce 
convincing evidence of their charge or stand before the world 
branded as the instigators of another plot on the part of the gov- 
ernment itself to injure Ireland in the eyes of the world. The 
Evening Telegraph of Monday, May 20, summed up the case 
against the government as follows : 

"The government has proclaimed the existence of a German 
plot in Ireland and has simultaneously arrested and deported to 
'somewhere in Great Britain' over one hundred leaders of the Sinn 
Fein movement. It is now up to the government to define the 
charges and supply the proofs. Till that is done, Irish Nation- 
alists may be pardoned if, in view of their experience of the 
dishonourable methods of their British slave-drivers, they regard 
the latest coup as merely part of an organized conspiracy to de- 
fame Ireland and poison the mind of the civilized world againsi 
her claim to freedom. With memories of the Pigott forgeries and 
the infamous efforts made to destroy Parnell and the great move- 
ment which he founded, they not unnaturally regard with sus- 
picion and disbelief charges well calculated to damn Ireland in 
the eyes of the American people. 

"Nothing could be more calculated to discredit Irishmen, to 
injure the national cause, to alienate the sympathy of every lib- 
erty-loving nation, and to destroy the prospects of any appeal 
either to a Peace Conference or an Imperial conference, than to 
besmirch our people with the foul stain of association with any 
German intrigue. Such an intrigue would be treason to Ireland ; 



The Irish Republic 161 

and it would involve a slander on our people. There may be a 
few reckless fanatics who would stoop to such a dishonourable 
alliance, but they would be repudiated by the great mass of the 
Irish people. It is freedom that Ireland is seeking, not a change 
of taskmasters ; and if our national rights are to be restored, it 
will not be with the aid of the blood-stained arms of the butchers 
of Belgium. 

"Germany has never shown herself the friend of small op- 
pressed nationalities, and least of all since she inaugurated the 
dread world-conflict by the ruthless martyrdom of the gallant 
little nation she had pledged her honour to defend. Ireland's sym- 
pathies in this war are on the side of the principles on behalf of 
which America has unsheathed the sword, and it was only Eng- 
land's denial of the application of those principles to Ireland 
which transformed and perverted the splendid enthusiasm with 
which our people were already rushing to the support of the allied 
cause in the autumn of 1914. The influences that in those early 
days openly declared that they did not w'ant 'too many National- 
ist recruits,' because the accession of these recruits might help 
the Home Rule cause, have pursued their policy unceasingly, and 
unscrupulously, and the results are what everyone might have 
anticipated. The Irish people were disillusioned and discouraged 
and antagonized ; but that does not mean that they are pro-Ger- 
mans or that their sympathies are with the power that has tram- 
pled on freedom all over Europe, and which is seeking to estab- 
lish a militarist hegemony over a prostrate Europe. 

"If the British government has proofs of a German plot, it 
must produce them. Not to do so would be a tacit admission that 
the Viceregal proclamation was merely part of a cunning intrigue 
to poison the mind of all the allied countries, and particularly of 
America, against this small nationality, which, for the last 118 
years, has been governed in accordance with the Prussian code 
against which the Allies, w-e are told, are waging determined war- 
fare. The government has effected its coup with remarkable 
celerity and unquestioned success. Every man arrested is branded 
in the eyes of the outside world with the suspicion of guilty asso- 
ciation with what the anti-Irish press describes as 'The Hun Con- 
spiracy in Ireland.' 'We understand,' says the Daily Mail (Lon- 
don), 'that the government has conclusive evidence.' All the more 
reason is there why it should be tabled (brought out). But the 
Harmsworth organ, which seeks to impress on the world the sug- 
gestion that the government has 'conclusive evidence' also in- 
dicates that the men incriminated in this blackguard fashion are 
not to be put on trial, but to be kept in jail. This double infamy 



162 The Irish Republic 

it seeks to justify by an alleged analogy, which directly indicates 
that the purpose of the whole government scheme — a scheme by 
the way which Sir Edward Carson, who is not a member of the 
government, was able to foreshadow in a speech delivered on 
May 8 — is to turn American opinion against Ireland. Referring 
to the wholesale arrests, the Mail says: 'In the measures it (the 
new Irish executive) has taken, it has followed — though on a 
smaller scale — the precedent set by Abraham Lincoln, who, when 
dealing with sedition, swiftly and resolutely arrested many hun- 
dreds of dangerous persons and kept them in prison without trial 
so long as the peril continued.' 

"The words in italics are printed as they appear in the Daily 
Mail. It approves of a similar policy in regard to the arrested 
Sinn Feiners, and describes this unadulterated Prussian- 
ism, as 'muscular and determined action.' There is a ring of 
brute force about the phrase. It indicates swash-buckling mili- 
tarism riding roughshod over a helpless people whose enemies de- 
file the national cause with a tar-brush dipped in the pitch of an 
alleged German plot. 

"Whilst the Mail proclaims the policy of defaming Ireland and 
refusing a trial to those whom it assails and penalizes, its 'Irish 
correspondent,' writing in its news columns, remarks that 'really 
sensible people urge that the government should give us some in- 
dication of the nature of the evidence that they possess of a plot 
with Germany.' That is another way of saying that 'really sensi- 
ble people' don't believe that there is any such evidence. But 
in any case, what have 'really sensible people' got to do with the 
government of Ireland? They never have had anything to do 
with it ; and it is not in the hour when madness reigns supreme 
their counsels will be listened to. 

"We all know that, at the time of the Pigott forgeries, the 
government of that day had what the anti-Irish journals then 
declared to be 'conclusive evidence' against Parnell. They may 
have equally 'conclusive' evidence now. Until they produce their 
proofs, the Irish people may reasonably believe that the present 
charges have no better foundations than that supplied by the no- 
torious Pigott at the Times commission." 

A section of the Tory press in England ferociously assailed 
the Irish leaders and declared that, instead of being given a trial, 
they should be shot. In Ireland the people, almost with a single 
voice, demanded that the proofs be given to the public forthwith 
if there were any proofs, and the government finally through the 
press bureau issued a formal statement. 

A more careful reading of the government's statement seemed 



The Irish Republic 163 

to fortify the Irish leaders in their opinion that the government 
didn't have any proof, since, for the most part, the French proc- 
lamation was a rehash of the evidence before the commission 
that investigated the Easter insurrection of 1916. Subsequently, 
when it became apparent that the government did not intend to 
place the prisoners on trial and produce the evidence it claimed to 
have against them, the free Ireland forces substituted ridicule for 
invective, and began shouting "Pigott" from one end of the land 
to the other. 

A few days later Lord French announced the government's 
plan for trying voluntary recruiting in place of compulsion. It 
was an offer to Irish boys who would enlist for service of farm 
lands in Ireland on their return from the war. This produced an- 
other laugh. All they saw in this was an "ascendency plot." They 
said: "Sure, for every Irish lad they put on the land, they'll put 
ten thousand English lads." 

The trouble was that there was nowhere among the Irish 
masses a single person who had any confidence in the govern- 
ment's pledges. That confidence had been utterly destroyed a 
long time before. 



164 



CHAPTER XXIX 

ARRESTING THE REPUBLICAN LEADERS 

ON the afternoon of the 17th of April a report was current in 
Dublin that the government was considering action of 
some sort. It was whispered about that w^holesale arrests of the 
Sinn Fein leaders was in contemplation. This report was car- 
ried to the Sinn Fein headquarters, 6 Harcourt street, early that 
evening, where De Valera and others were in conference. There 
had been so many similar reports of late that De Valera did not 
take this one seriously and dismissed it from his mind. 

It was not until about midnight that we in Dublin got the first 
inkling of w4iat was taking place. The rumbling of motor lorries, 
manned by English soldiers and the Dublin Metropolitan Police, 
and converging in Dame Street, on the way to the Castle, told the 
story. It was not until the following morning, however, that the 
populace learned of the arrests which produced another convul- 
sion of indescribable bitterness. Great headlines in the morning 
papers briefly summarized the story. Throughout Saturday and 
Sunday the big lorries rumbled over the cobblestone pavements 
transporting Irishmen to his majesty's jail. On Monday morn- 
ing, the Freeman's Journal published the following summary : 

"Arrests by the authorities of leading Sinn Feiners took place 
in various parts of Ireland on Friday night and Saturday morn- 
ing. Though the government swoop came as a surprise, the peo- 
ple remained calm, and only one untoward incident was reported 
— at Skibbereen, where, in a scuffle with the police, one of the 
civilians, who was arrested, received a bullet wound. The last 
arrest reported was that of Mrs. Maud Gonne MacBride, which 
took place last night as she was going with her son to her resi- 
dence in Merrion Square. Upwards of one hundred arrests were 
effected altogether, and seventy-three of the prisoners were 
shipped from Kingstown on Saturday evening. 'At Holyhead,' 
(Wales), writes the Press Association correspondent, T caught a 
glimpse of the company when they landed from a government 
boat. The countess was not at all careworn nor anxious in ap- 
pearance, and walked along the pier with light step.' The Sinn 
Fein headquarters, in Harcourt Street, were raided by police, and 
some documents were seized, but no arrests were made there. 
Subsequently the premises were reopened, and a poster was ex- 
hibited outside, announcing 'Business as Usual.' The offices of 




Photo Copyright, Underivood and Undcrivood. 

George Noble Count Plunkett 

IRISH REPUBLIC DELEGATE TO PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE BUT 
DIDN-T ARRIVE. ONE OF HIS SONS WAS SHOT AFTER THE EASTER 
INSURRECTION AND TWO OTHER SONS WERE SENTENCED TO 
PRISON THE COUNT HIMSELF WAS DEPORTED AND THROWN 
INTO AN ENGLISH PRISON LAST YEAR. HE IS A VERY LEARNED 
MAN. 



The Irish Republic 165 

the National Aid Association were also raided and books and doc- 
uments were removed." 

It was estimated that altogether close on a hundred arrests 
were made on Friday night and Saturday in Dublin and the 
provinces. Those known to have been taken into custody were : 

E. De Valera, M. P., President of Sinn Fein. 

Arthur Griffith, Vice President of Sinn Fein. 

Wm. Cosgrove, Sinn Fein, M. P., Kilkenny, and Hon. Treas- 
urer of Sinn F'ein. 

Joseph M'Guinness, Sinn Fein, M. P., South Longford, and 
member Executive Committee, Sinn Fein. 

Count Plunkett, Sinn Fein, M. P., North Roscommon. 

Darrell Figgis, novelist, one of Hon. Secretaries Sinn Fein. 

Countess Markievicz, member Sinn Fein Executive. Other 
Sinn Fein executives in the list were Dr. Thomas Dillon, Dr. 
Richard Hayes, Sean Milroy and Sean M'Entee. From Dub- 
lin there were Walter L. Cole, J. McGrath, Sean McGarry, Her- 
bert Mellowes, Thomas Hunter, P. O'Keefe, Frank Fahy, J. K. 
O'Reilly, George A. Lyons, Frank Lawless, and Richard Coleman, 
Swords. 

Arrests reported in the provinces were : 

Denis M'CuUagh, Belfast ; Tadhg Barry, Cork ; Peter Delough- 
rey, T. C, Kilkenny; Peter Hughes and Joseph Berrils, Dundalk ; 
Philip Monahan, Drogheda ; George Nicholls, B. A., and Thomas 
Ruane, Galway City ; Dr. Brian Cusack, Turloughmore, County 
Galway ; Bernard Fallon, Loughrea ; V. Travers, Gort ; George 
Geraghty, Roscommon, Chairman, Town Commissioners; Colman 
O'Gaori, Rosmuck ; Jos. MacBride and Ed. Moane, Westport ; 
Stephen Jordan, Athenry ; John Clancy, Secretary, Sligo County, 
Committee Agriculture, President of the Executive Sinn Fein 
alliance; Gerald O'Connell, Sligo; John O'Hurley, Athlone ; T. 
M. Russell, M. C. C, TuUamore, President Sinn Fein Executive, 
North Kings County ; Reader O'Hourihane, Ted O'DriscoU, 
James O'Brien, Thomas Reidy, Fineen O'Sullivan, Stephen Barry 
and George Bohane, Skibbereen ; Patrick Sugrue ("An Seab- 
bac"), Dingle; Michael Spillane, Commandant Killarney, Irish 
Volunteers ; Daniel Dougherty, President Sinn Fein Club, 
Strabane ; J. Dolan, Desmond Fitzgerald, John O'Mahony 
and Richard Daveys, Cavan ; Brian O'Higgins, Carrigaholt, 
County Clare, and Frank Drohan, Clonmel. 

The arrests of the Sinn Fein leaders in Dublin were mostly 
effected on Friday night. De Valera was arrested at Greystones 
railway station on his way to his home. He left Dublin by the 
10:15 train, arriving at Bray at 11 o'clock. There he exchanged 



166 The Irish Republic 

into the train for Greystones. Head Contable Mulligan and other 
constables took seats in the same train, and, on arriving at Grey- 
stones, District Inspector Molony and Head Constable Mulligan 
placed De Valera under arrest. He was taken to the waiting room 
and searched, after which he was placed in a motor car and 
driven to Kingstown. There he was handed over to the military 
and placed on board the transport. 

Shortly after midnight a number of detectives in plain clothes 
arrived at the residence of William Cosgrove, M. P., in James's 
Street, Dublin. The hall door was opened by Mr. Flynn, foreman 
of the licensed premises. One of the men asked Mr. Flynn was 
Mr. Cosgrove in. and Mr. Flynn replied that he was, but that he 
was in bed, not having been well for the past few days. Mr. Flynn 
asked the spokesman of the party his authority for entering the 
house, as he was in charge of the licensed premises and could not 
allow any person in without producing his authority. The in- 
spector refused to produce any authority, and insisted on seeing 
Mr. Cosgrove. Mr. Flynn said he was in bed. The inspector said 
he would have to go to his bedroom. A friend who was in 
the house at the time, and Mr. Cosgrove, Councillor Cosgrove's 
uncle, then came forward. In the meantime eight detectives in 
plain clothes had entered the hall. The inspector repeated his 
wish to see Councillor Cosgrove, and his uncle went upstairs for 
him. Councillor Cosgrove came down to the hall after some 
time, dressed, and the detectives took him into custody. Before 
leaving the house it was suggested that Cosgrove should take a 
rug with him. He was escorted by the detectives to a covered 
military wagon in which there were a number of armed soldiers. 

Madame Markievicz was arrested on Rathmines road while 
on her way home at Leinster road about 11 o'clock on Friday 
night. She had attended a meeting at the Sinn Fein headquarters 
in Harcourt street, and after leaving the meeting walked to the 
residence of Madame Gonne MacBride, at Stephen's Green. 
Later she proceeded on her homeward way to Rathmines. 
Madame had reached a point on Rathmines road near the en- 
trance to Portobello barracks, when she was held up by six sol- 
diers with whom were also two detectives. The arrest was effected 
rapidly. Madame was politely directed to wheel about and step 
into an armed motor car which the military had in readiness. She 
was accompanied by her inseparable companion, the dog which 
is almost as well known as she is herself. The animal, which has 
shown itself receptive to a certain kind of training, sat upon the 
seat of the motor car, and treated the military to a "turn" in the 
way of "straffing" England, a canine trick which caused much 



The Irish Republic 167 

amusement, even on such a serious occasion. The countess ex- 
hibited no surprise, remarking: "This is the new government 
making a beginning." 

Dr. Dillon, a son-in-law of Count Plunkett, M. P., was at his 
residence, 13 Belgrave road, when he was taken into custody by 
members of the detective force. The arrest was effected shortly 
after 11 o'clock. 

Darrell Figgis, ^Secretary of the Sinn Fein organization, was 
arrested shortly before midnight. He was at home in his flat at 
24 Kildare Street when the police agents called. The arrest was 
effected quietly, Mr. Figgis merely asking for the authority and 
entering a protest. Mrs. Figgis accompanied him in the vehicle 
to the barracks. 

Patrick O'Keefe, acting secretar)^ of the Sinn Fein organiza- 
tion, was arrested at his residence, 21 Camden Street, Dublin, be- 
tween 1 and 2 a. m., on Saturday. When the police entered the 
house, Mr. O'Keefe was in bed. A motor lorry in charge of some 
soldiers was drawn up on the street until Mr. O'Keefe was taken 
away to Ship street barracks. 

About half-past two on Saturday morning, a number of de- 
tectives and some soldiers heavily armed presented themselves 
at the residence of Walter L. Cole, 3 Mountjoy Square, and were 
admitted to the house. They inquired for Mr. Cole, and were in- 
formed that he was in bed. Soldiers and police remained down- 
stairs until Mr. Cole, having dressed in the meantime, put in an 
appearance. He was immediately placed under arrest, was con- 
veyed to a military wagon which was in waiting, and in which 
were some other soldiers, and, like the others arrested, was con- 
veyed to Ship street barracks. 

Dr. Hayes was arrested shortly after midnight at his residence, 
Thomond House, South Circular road. A party of military ac- 
companied by detectives took him into custody. 

The detectives visited the residence of Joseph McGuinness, 
M. P., 41 Gardiner Street, about half-past twelve. They asked 
for Mr. McGuinness, and, on his making his appearance, he was 
quickly arrested, conveyed to a military wagon, which was in 
waiting in the vicinity, and driven to the barracks. 

Count Plunkett, M. P., was arrested at Amiens Street sta- 
tion of the Great Northern Railway Company on Saturday eve- 
ning as he alighted from the mail train which reached the ter- 
minus at 7 o'clock. The arrest was made by a plain clothes po- 
liceman, who conveyed him to a military motor which was in 
waiting. Count Plunkett was accompanied by his youngest son 
when he was taken into custody. He was immediately driven to 



168 The Irish Republic 

the Bridewell and the next day was removed to Arbor Hill bar- 
racks. 

The arrest of Thomas Hunter took place at his lodgings, 2 
Albert Terrace, Dollymount, about 12 :30 on Saturday morning. 
He was taken to Ship street barracks. 

Joseph MacBride, brother of the late Major MacBride, and 
Ed Moane were arrested early on Saturday morning, and handed 
over to the military, who took them by early train from West- 
port. MacBride was in Reading jail with Griffith and Figgis. 
Moane had been imprisoned recently for drilling Volunteers. 

Frank Lawless, D. C, an extensive farmer, was arrested on 
Saturday at his residence, Saucerstown, Swords, by a force of 
about thirty police, drawn from districts in North County Dublin, 
and conveyed by a motor lorry, driven by military, to Dublin. 
The police, who effected an entrance by bursting in the back door, 
remained on the premises from 2 a. m. to 5 a. m., and searched 
them thoroughly, but the result, if any, of their quest, did not 
transpire. Mr. Lawless was sentenced to ten years imprison- 
ment in connection with the rising of 1916. 

Richard Coleman, insurance agent, Main Street, Swords, also 
was arrested in his house, the door being battered in with a sledge 
hammer. He was brought in a separate motor lorry to the city. 
He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in connection with 
the rising, and, with Mr. Lawless, was released on the general 
amnesty being granted. 

The Cavan correspondent wired on Saturday : "In the early 
hours of this morning, the military effected the arrest of the 
following members of the Sinn Fein organization who have been 
engaged in election work in Plast Cavan : Desmond Fitzgerald. L 
Dolan, John O'Mahony, and Richard Daveys." 

Philip Monahan was arrested in Drogheda. He was presi- 
dent of the local Sinn Fein club. 

Peter Hughes, chairman of the Dundalk Urban Council and 
President of the North Louth Sinn Fein Executive, and Joseph 
Berrills, Williamson's place, were taken by the police and con- 
veyed to Dublin. They were taken to the station in a military'' 
motor, escorted by soldiers. 

Michael Fleming, Tralee, who recently had been released from 
prison for drilling, was arrested by a large force of constabulary, 
when a search was made for arms and none found. P. J. Cahill 
was not at home, when the police called about the same hour. 
"The Seabhag" (Patrick Sugrue), Irish teacher. Dingle, who had 
been released only a week for drilling, was arrested on the train 
in Dingle. Several other arrests were made throughout the 




Arthur Griffith 

founder of sinn fein and de valera's right hand man. he is 

an able writer. 



The Irish Republic 169 

County Kerry. 

W. J. Brennan, Whitmore, who since his Uberation from Fron- 
goch had represented the Enniscorthy Echo in Gorey, was ar- 
rested by a force of police under District Inspector Lea Wilson 
and a number of military at the house of Myles Travers, 38 Main 
Street, where he lodged. The arrest was effected quietly. Owing 
to the early hour, there was no one around, and it was not till 
about 7 o'clock that the general public learned of the arrest. The 
prisoner was taken under military escort to Dublin. 

The Cashel police nabbed Pierce M'Cann, son of Francis 
M'Cann, J. P., Ballyowen House, Cashel. He was managing his 
father's farm, and was president of the East Tipperary Sinn Fein 
Executive. He was arrested after the 1916 rebellion and interned 
in England. 

Peter Deloughry, T. C, Treasurer of St. Mary's Branch Na- 
tional Defense Fund, was arrested in Kilkenny under the Defense 
of the Realm Act. No charge was made against him. He was 
brought to the police barracks after his arrest and shortly after 
midnight was motored to the military barracks, where he was 
detained overnight. He was conveyed under strong military 
and police escort to the railway station on Saturday morning and 
removed to Dublin in the custody of the police. About 2 a. m., 
his house was visited by a body of police and a search made for 
arms or incriminating documents, but none was found. The 
residence of T. Treacy, Irish Volunteer Captain, Dean Street, 
also was visited by the police with a view to his arrest, but Mr. 
Treacy was not found. Both Deloughry and Treacy were amongst 
the Kilkenny prisoners arrested after Easter week, and were kept 
in detention for some months. 

About 10 o'clock on Friday night, George Geraghty, Chair- 
man of Roscommon Town Commissioners, was arrested by the 
police. No charge was made against him. It was supposed that 
the arrest was in connection with a speech made by him at a meet- 
ing protesting against conscription, held about a month previous. 
Geraghty, who recently had been married, was conveyed to Dub- 
lin by motor. He was interned in Frongoch with other prisoners 
from Roscommon after the rising in Dublin, in Easter Week, 1916. 
' was president of the Roscommon Sinn Fein Executive. 

The Galway correspondent telegraphed : "A sensation wa^, 
caused in Galway city and county by the arrests of the following 
Sinn Fein leaders : George Nicolls, B. A., solicitor, editor, Gal- 
way Express; Dr. Brian Cusack, medical officer, Turloughmore ; 
Thomas Ruane, Chairman Galway District Council ; Colman 
O'Gaori, Gaelic League Organizer, Rosmuck ; Stephen Jordan, 



170 The Irish Republic 

Athenry, Secretary County Galway Board, Gaelic Athletic Asso- 
ciation, and M. V. Trayers, Gort. The arrests were effected dur- 
ing the early hours of Saturday morning, and the parties removed 
to the mihtary barracks, Galway. Nicolls was twice interned in 
England. Messrs. Ruane, Jordan and Trayers were arrested after 
the rising in 1916. O'Gaori had been arrested recently for singing 
'seditious' songs and released on bail." 

Tadhg Barry, a local Sinn Feiner, was arrested at his home, 
Blarney Street, Cork. Later he was handed over to the military 
authorities and, under armed escort, subsequently taken away by 
train. 

T. M. Russell, M, C. C, Ballyduff House, Tullamore, was ar- 
rested at half-past twelve o'clock on Saturday morning, at his 
home, which was surrounded by military and police. Mr. Russell 
was conveyed to Tullamore prison by the military, who detained 
him there until the afternoon, when he was conveyed to Dublin. 
It was about 4:30 a. m. on Saturday when the military, 
accompanied by a large body of local police, surrounded the 
houses of J. J. Clancy and Gerald O'Connell, in Sligo, and ar- 
rested them. Both were taken to the military barracks, and were 
subsequently taken under heavy escort to Dublin. 

A party of soldiers surrounded the house in Athlone of John 
O'Hurly of the Irish Volunteers, and eft'ected his arrest. 
O'Hurly, who is a native of Cork, and was locally employed, 
was a frequent speaker at Sinn Fein meetings. He and George 
Geraghty, Chairman of Roscommon Town Commissioners, were 
removed by morning train to Dublin. 

Gerald Boland, aged about thirty, a member of the Sinn Fein 
Organization, and brother of Harry Boland, the well known mem- 
ber of the Executive, was arrested at his residence at Crooksling, 
near Brittas, on a drilling charge. He was brought, handcuffed, 
under a heavy escort, in a military wagon to Dublin, and was 
lodged in the Bridewell. Boland was in bed at the time of his 
arrest. He participated actively in the Easter rising of 1916, and 
was one of those deported to England. He was a married man 
with a family. 

Denis McCullagh and John McEntee, two prominent Sinn 
Feiners, were taken to the military headquarters. 

Charles Collins and Christopher Mullins, stated to belong to 
the working class — one of them being an employe of the Dublin 
Corporation — were arrested at Brittas, County Dublin. When 
passing along the highway they were challenged by the Royal Irish 
Constabulary, who conveyed them to the neighboring police sta- 
tion. On being searched, it is alleged that a quantity of gelignite 



The Irish Republic 171 

was found in their possession. The prisoners were subsequently 
removed in a miUtary motor van, under escort, to the Dublin 
Metropolitan Police Bridewell. 

Some of the leaders taken in the first raid and their political rec- 
ords were : 

Eamonn De Valera, M. P.. had been unanimously elected 
leader of the Sinn Fein organization. He was released from gaol 
in England, where he was imprisoned on a life sentence for par- 
ticipating in the Easter rising, at the time of the general amnesty. 
He was a member of the Mansion House Conference on conscrip- 
tion, which had not yet concluded its deliberations. He was elected 
as member for East Clare shortly after the election of Count 
Plunkett for the Roscommon vacancy, and was generally looked 
upon as the most formidable of the Sinn Fein leaders. 

Arthur Griffith was the Sinn Fein candidate for the Par- 
liamentary vacancy in East Cavan. He was the editor of the 
Sinn Fein organ. Nationality, and has often been alluded to as the 
"Father of Sinn Fein." His journal was devoted weekly to po- 
litical articles, and generally contained a leading article from his 
own pen. Griffith was also a member of the Mansion House Con- 
ference, and his recent action in pressing for a contest in East 
Cavan had provoked much hostile criticism in the section of the 
Irish press devoted to the interests of the Irish party. 

Joseph McGuinness, M. P., represented South Longford as 
a Sinn Feiner, having been elected while in gaol. He was sent 
to prison in England after the Sinn Fein rebellion in 1916, and 
was released with the other prisoners at the time of the general 
amnesty granted by the government before the sitting of the Irish 
Convention. 

Madame Markievicz is one of the best known of the Sinn 
Fein leaders. She led the insurgent force which occupied the Col- 
lege of Surgeons, Stephen's Green, during the Easter Week re- 
bellion, and received a life sentence for her part in the outbreak. 
She was released at the time of the general amnesty, and had 
since been prominent upon Sinn Fein platforms throughout the 
country, her speeches being of a somewhat violent character. 

Darrell Figgis (a Protestant) was sentenced to prison after 
the Sinn Fein insurrection in 1916, and upon his release had been 
present occasionally upon Sinn Fein election platforms. He was 
a writer of ability and had recently published a book relating his 
prison experiences. He was also a writer of verse, and in his 
early life was a prolific contributor of poetry to the leading Eng- 
lish periodicals. Mr. Figgis was prominently identified wdth the 
Howth gun-running affair in the summer of 1916. He was at 



172 The Irish Republic 

Bachelor's Walk. He had been in residence at Achill for a con- 
siderable period, and it was thought that his views did not coincide 
with those of the Sinn Feiners, until after his imprisonment, when 
he ranged himself definitely upon the side of the extremists. 

William T. Cosgrave, M. P., was the Sinn Fein member 
for Kilkenny City. He took an active part in the Sinn Fein rebel- 
lion in 1916, and had taken a prominent part of late in the fur- 
therance of the Sinn Fein cause throughout the country. He was 
also chairman of the Finance Committee of the Dublin Corpora- 
tion. 

Sean Milroy was the Sinn Fein candidate for East Tyrone 
Parliamentary vacancy. He was defeated there by the Irish Party 
candidate, Thomas Harbison. 

Sean M'Entee had also taken an active part in the recent 
election campaigns on the Sinn Fein side, and was an acknowl- 
edged leader of the Belfast Sinn Feiners. 

Denis McCullagh was another prominent Belfast Sinn Fein- 
er. He was in Belfast at the time of his arrest. He was looked 
upon as a tower of strength in the Sinn Fein movement in the 
North. 

Sean McGarry was sentenced to imprisonment in 1916 for 
his part in the Sinn Fein rebellion. He had published verse and 
was a scholar of no mean ability. Mr. M'Garry delivered an ora- 
tion over the body of the late Thomas Ashe, during the lying-in- 
state in the City Hall, Dublin. 

W^ L. Cole had also been an active worker for Sinn Fein in 
the provinces, and had appeared on election platforms. Although 
he was not perhaps as well known as the other leaders, his arrest 
had not been altogether unexpected. He was an ex-Alderman 
of the Dublin Corporation, and resided in Dublin. 

Thomas Dillon was a teacher at the University College, Dub- 
lin, and had been prominently identified with the Sinn Fein move- 
ment. 

Richard Hayes was sentenced to a term of imprisonment in 
connection with the Sinn Fein rebellion. He was the leader of a 
rebel force in the Swords district, where there was severe fighting. 

During the morning and early afternoon of Monday, the 20th. 
small groups gathered in the vicinity of Dame Street on the look- 
out for the arrival or departure of prisoners by the gate of the 
Lower Castle Yard. 

The new Chief Secretary, Mr. Shortt, clad in a summer suit 
of gray tweed, and smoking a cigarette, motored through Dame 
Street in the afternoon but was not recognized by the infuriated 
populace. 



The Irish Republic 173 

The following further Sinn Fein arrests were made on the 
22nd : Mrs. Thomas Clarke, Fairview, Dublin ; J. Etchingham, 
Courtown Harbour, Gorey ; M. J. Lennon, Dublin, and John Cor- 
coran and Thomas Ruane, County Mayo. 

Mrs. Clarke was the widow of Thomas Clarke, and sister of 
Edward Daly, both of whom were executed after the rebellion of 
1916, and niece of the late John Daly of Limerick, who under- 
went a long term of imprisonment in connection with alleged par- 
ticipation in the dynamite conspiracy in England. She was ar- 
rested at her house, and conveyed in a motor wagon to Arbour 
Hill Barracks under armed guard. She had five young children 
at the time. They were placed in the care of Mrs. Sean M'Garry, 
whose husband was arrested on the premises Friday and de- 
ported. Mrs. Clarke was a member of the Sinn Fein Executive. 

Mr. Etchingham was sentenced to five years' penal servitude 
after the rising. He was arrested at midnight on Tuesday, having 
just returned from a Sinn Fein organizing tour in Wicklow, and 
was only gone to bed when the police visited his sister's house, 
where he was staying. 

Mr. Lennon, a Dublin Corporation clerk and editor of Young 
Ireland, was apprehended by Detective Sergeant Barton and an- 
other detective near his residence at Longwood avenue, and taken 
to the Bridewell. He had only recently been released from jail, 
where he was serving a term for a speech at Marysborough. At 
his trial he would speak Irish only. He was interned at Fron- 
goch after the rebellion. 

P. H. Burke was an ex-inland revenue officer. He was de- 
ported after the rebellion from the North of Ireland, where he 
was prominently associated wdth the Volunteer movement. After 
his return he took up the study of medicine in Dublin. 

Madam Maud Gonne MacBride was arrested on her way 
home. She had been visiting in Merrion square, and apparently 
her movements had been watched. Four detectives met her as she 
was passing along the west side of the square accompanied by her 
son, on her way to a residence in St. Stephen's Cireen. The de- 
tectives surrounded her and informed her of the order for her 
arrest. She was brought to the police station in the Castle. Her 
son was allowed to accompany her to the station and remained 
there with her for a little while. 

Seventy-three of the Sinn Fein prisoners, including De Valera, 
Griffith, Cosgrove and Countess Markievicz, were taken to 
Kingstown on Saturday morning, the 18th, and placed on board an 
auxiliary cruiser. The vessel left Kingstown at 6 o'clock that 
same evening, A large crowd of sympathizers cheered loudly as 



174 The Irish Republic 

she steamed out of the harbour. 

Between midnight and 4 o'clock Saturday morning fifty-one 
prisoners were placed on board the vessel and twenty-two others 
during the day. Large crowds cheered their arrival, and the pris- 
oners acknowledged the demonstration. 

Shortly after midnight, residents of Kingstown were aroused 
by the noise of passing motor wagons and the hooting of the 
horns of these vehicles. Pedestrians going to their homes in the 
early hours were surprised on seeing army locomotives driving 
along at a high speed and were mystified as to the cause. It was 
only when they read the morning newspapers that they learned 
that the unusual activity was due to the transference of Sinn Fein 
prisoners from Dublin to be placed on board a vessel lying in the 
harbour. 

From midnight until 5 o'clock what seemed an incessant pass- 
ing of motors continued. These vehicles generally traveled in 
threes when making their journeys. The first car, as a rule, dis- 
played a little light. The second, which had no light, contained 
the prisoners, and the third had a brilliant flare, casting its light 
on the preceding car. 

The authorities refused to divulge the names of the prisoners. 
The wharf was under the control of the admiralty. Several hun- 
dred soldiers took up their stations there during the morning. 

When the presence of the prisoners became known, men, 
women and children to the number of several hundred congre- 
gated on the balcony outside the railway station, along the Queen's 
Road, and outside the warf. There was no demonstration, but all 
were eagerly discussing this latest move on the part of the govern- 
ment. About 1 1 o'clock, owing to the very large crowd which had 
gathered on the railway balcony, orders were given that it should 
be cleared, and the order was carried out. There was no dis- 
turbance. A couple of hours later, the police removed people who 
were standing on the warf. 

At about 12 :45 o'clock, two prisoners from the country, in 
charge of Royal Irish constabulary men and under a military 
escort, arrived in motor cars. On alighting they were taken to a 
small boat, and subsequently placed on board the vessel. 

The crowd on the Queen's road was quickly augmented when 
the rumour spread that additional prisoners were expected by 
special train. Several thousand had congregated on the roads 
overlooking the wharf by 3 o'clock. Then the military took pos- 
session of Kingstown railway station. Soldiers with fixed bayonets 
were placed at the entrances, and no unauthorized person was 
allowed to remain on the local platform. Even some of the rail- 



The Irish Republic 175 

way officials were directed to leave this portion of the station. 
From the parcel office entrance to the Victoria Wharf, a cordon 
of soldiers with fixed bayonets was drawn across the road. 

Great confusion was occasioned at about 3:15 o'clock, 
when passengers, who had alighted at Kingstown from a West- 
land Row to Bray train, were not allowed out of the station by 
the soldiers, nor would those who desired to join the train be al- 
lowed in. Amongst those held up was a well known naval chap- 
lain. 

At 3 :30 o'clock a special train from the Midlands ran into the 
local platform, and ten prisoners, under a strong escort of soldiers 
and about half a dozen Royal Irish constabulary, alighted. They 
were immediately marched to the wharf. On leaving the station, 
some of the prisoners, Desmond Fitzgerald, John O'Mahony, and 
others, were recognized. The crowd loudly cheered them, and 
there were shouts of "Up the Rebels." Hats and sticks were 
waved. The military seemed surprised, but the prisoners smiled 
and several raised their hats in acknowledgment of the cheering. 

About the same time, two large army motor wagons, with 
soldiers, came swiftly down the Royal Marine road and passed 
through the people to the wharf. Three prisoners were taken 
from these vehicles. They also were cheered. In the meantime, 
the passengers who had been held up in the railway station were 
allowed to go. 

There ensued a lull until shortly after 5 o'clock, when two 
more motor wagons were seen coming down the Royal Marine 
road. Surmising that these also contained prisoners, the crowd 
gave vent to a much greater demonstration than before. Cheer 
after cheer was given. Hats, sticks and handkerchiefs were 
waved aloft. Amongst those present were Mrs. Darrell Figgis 
and Mrs. Desmond Fitzgerald. When the wagons were stopped 
on the warf and the prisoners alighted, the people again cheered 
lustily. The prisoners took off their hats and waved them about 
their heads. They were marched on board the transport. 

The proceedings were now getting a bit lively, and a group of 
young men and girls commenced to sing the "Soldier's Song." As 
it was about to be taken up by the crowd, the police dispersed 
the group and stopped the continuance of the song. 

Preparations were now made for the departure of the ves- 
sel, and it was seen that she was about to sail. At 5 :45 
o'clock she left the wharf, the crowd cheering and singing. 
Several hundred people had assembled on the point of the West 
Pier of the harbour, and, as the steamer passed out to sea, they 
also gave it a hearty send ofif. 



176 The Irish Republic 

The cheering was by way of expressing to the prisoners the 
pride the masses had for men who were going to jail for Ire- 
land's sake. There were no tears — only cheers for the "martyrs" 
and hate for the government. 

Mrs. Maud Gonne MacBride was deported a few nights later. 
She was taken under armed escort to Kingstown and placed on 
the mail boat sailing for Holyhead. 

She arrived at the Carlisle Pier in an army motor wagon, and 
under an escort of eight soldiers. Her arrival was witnessed by 
a small crowd of women, young girls and children, who, when they 
saw the stately prisoner, rushed towards her and cheered. Mrs. 
MacBride was marched quickly to the pier, surrounded by the 
escort in charge of an officer. Her portemanteau was carried by a 
soldier. As she walked up the pier, accompanied by the armed 
guard, she was the center of attraction to the passengers who 
were traveling by the mail boat. She was attired in a black dress, 
with a long, tiowing veil, and smiled defiantly above the soldiers 
as they passed. She was a striking-looking prisoner. 

Another batch of the "rebels" was put on a steamer at the 
North Wall. Several military motors, accompanied by a strong 
armed guard, drove to the dock, and, on arrival at the premises 
of the London and North Western Company it was seen that the 
vehicles contained some sixteen civilian prisoners. The most 
prominent figure, easily recognized by the few at the port who wit- 
nessed the incident, was Count Plunkett. With the least possible 
delay the party were conducted on board a L. N. W. R. goods and 
cargo steamer which shortly afterwards sailed for Holyhead. The 
arrival of the party and the deportation were so unexpected and 
carried out so quietly that very few people even at the North 
Wall quays were aware of what had taken place until after the 
steamer had left the Liffey. 

Mrs. Clarke was in a party of five who were deported shortly 
afterward. They were conveyed in an army motor wagon from 
i^rbour Hill to Kingstown, accompanied by an armed guard. The 
prisoners' arrival was unexpected and few spectators witnessed it. 
The male prisoners helped Mrs. Clarke to alight from the wagon, 
then formed in twos about her, and, escorted by the guard, 
marched along the pier to the mail boat. There was no demon- 
stration. Subsequently, Mrs. Desmond Fitzgerald and two other 
ladies arrived and saw the mail boat depart. 

A curtain dropped down over Dublin. The relatives of the 
deported "martyrs" were at first refused information as to their 
destination, or whether they were to be taken to the Tower in 
London for execution. One such report was current. The au- 



The Irish Republic 177 

thorities lifted the veil slightly in a few days and permitted the 
publication of the press dispatches from England. The first news 
from the Void told of the landing in England. 

The special correspondent of the Daily Sketch, writing at 
Holyhead, forwarded the following: 

"Forty-six of the arrested Sinn Fein leaders, who were 
brought to Holyhead on Saturday night, alighted about 9 :30 at 
a quiet spot at the end of the harbour unobserved, each prisoner 
being in charge of an escort with fixed bayonet. All except 
Countess Markievicz, the only woman of the party, immediately 
entered an awaiting pontoon, which hurried them across the har- 
bour to the soldiers' rest camp, where they remained in custody 
under a strong guard. The countess was very quickly conveyed 
to the Holyhead Police station. Shortly before 11 o'clock yester- 
day, the countess, accompanied by Police Superintendent Proth- 
eroe, left the station and walked unnoticed to the Holyhead sta- 
tion. Here she entered a first-class corridor compartment on the 
mail train which proceeded to the Admiralty Pier to meet the 
Irish mail boat at noon. Accompanying here in the carriage was 
an officer and the matron of the Station Rest Camp for Soldiers 
and Sailors, whilst in the adjoining carriage was an armed 
guard. The countess departed for London shortly before 1 
o'clock. The other prisoners, it is understood, leave today 'for an 
unknown destination.' The countess arrived at Euston last eve- 
ning, and was quickly driven off in a closed taxicab to Holloway 
Prison. While the cab was being got ready she was busy waving 
smiling farewells to her sister and several friends on the plat- 
form. The sister stated that the countess went off in great 
spirits." 

Then came through the following London dispatch : 

"The three ladies arrested, it is supposed, under Lord French's 
proclamation, are confined in Holloway Prison. They are the 
Countess Markievicz, Mrs. Thomas J. Clarke, and Madame 
Gonne MacBride. The prisoners are allowed to meet and con- 
verse every day. They are, however, not allowed to receive visi- 
tors and will not be given letters addressed to them. Their diet is 
the Food Controller's rations. They may receive parcels in which 
there is no written matter, but no article of food that is rationed 
in England will be allowed to be given through parcels or other- 
wise." 

Subsequently letters were forwarded by the authorities from 
the prisoners in which they stated briefly that they were in good 
health. 

Back home in Erin a great tidal wave was sweeping over the 
land on which Sinn Fein was riding to a historic triumph. 



178 



CHAPTER XXX 



FATHER O FLANAGAN 



FATHER MICHAEL O'FLANAGAN was the one official of 
Sinn Fein the government did not seek to arrest. It sent 
word to the authorities to make an exception in his case alone. In 
Ireland it was understood that the government, which was a bit 
fearful lest the "No Popery" campaign would react against it, 
thought it best not to strike directly at the hierarchy by imprison- 
ing one of the people's idols who wore the Roman collar. The 
government, however, did issue an order that nothing Father 
O'Flanagan might say should be allowed to be sent out of Ireland. 
Father O'Flanagan and Arthur Griffith were the two vice presi- 
dents of the Sinn Fein organization, and O'Flanagan was the only 
high official of the party still at large in Ireland and not "on the 
run." He proceeded immediately to take the stump in the East 
Cavan election and to lay down the principles of Sinn Fern in 
reply to the government's charge of another German plot. In a 
famous speech at Ballyjamesdufif he said : 

"Coming along here today I had an opportunity of seeing one 
of the spots in Ireland that I have long desired most ardently to 
see, and although I had to run the risk of being a bit late for your 
meeting, I went a few miles out of the direct route in order to 
stand upon the Bridge of Finea. I said to myself that if I wanted 
to find a way to the hearts of the people of Cavan, the best prepa- 
ration I could make would be to spend a few moments communing 
with the souls of that heroic band of Cavan men that fought and 
died, with Miles the Slasher, to save the Irish army from destruc- 
tion. And as I stood for a few moments on the bridge today, I 
thought of how, when the sword of the enemy was driven to the 
cheek of Miles O'Reilly, he gripped the blade between his teeth 
and held it there as in a vice, until he had slain his opponent, and 
then I said to myself : 'You are going to address the men of a 
country in whose veins flow the blood of Miles O'Reilly, and 
whose hearts are full with the spirit and the courage of Miles 
O'Reilly, and if you cannot get them to stand in this new Gap 
of Danger, this new Bridge of Finea, the fault will be yours, and 
not theirs.' 

"England has undertaken a new ofifensive against us. She has 
started out by attempting to fill the whole earth with a poison 
cloud of misrepresentation and lies. She wants to prevent our 



The Irish Republic 179 

movement from being understood in foreign countries. They call 
us pro-German, because they can no longer get it recognized 
abroad as a crime to be pro-Irish. In the old days they called 
us 'wild Irish' and 'mere Irish,' and said we were unable to rule 
ourselves, but now, that our people are scattered and known 
throughout so many lands and when it is known wherever they go 
that their qualities of citizenship are second to none, they can no 
longer get us condemned because we are pro-Irish ; hence they 
say we are pro-German. They say that it is Germany we love, and 
not Ireland. They say that the source of our inspiration comes 
from the banks of the Rhine, and not from the banks of the 
Shannon. They say that our national hero is Prince Bismarck, 
and not Robert Emmet. We know that people are easily fooled, 
but they can hardly be so easily fooled as that. 

"The quarrel between England and Germany began less than 
four years ago; the fight between England and Ireland began 
seven hundred and fifty years ago. The quarrel between England 
and Germany is a quarrel about commerce, about coalpits, and oil- 
fields, and trade routes. It will probably be all settled in a few 
years and the blood relations that fill the two royal houses will 
again clink their champaign glasses over the graves of millions of 
the choicest flower of the manhood of both races. But the quar- 
rel between England and Ireland is a quarrel for the very life of 
the Irish nation. It is a quarrel that can only end either in the 
death of Irish Nationality, or the total separation of Ireland from 
England. 

"Our crime is not that we are pro-German, but that we are 
pro-Irish. It is not because they are pro-Germans that Griffith and 
De Valera are exiled and interned in England, but because of the 
far greater crime of being so Irish. But, unfortunately, England 
cannot call our crime by its true name without confessing the 
hypocrisy of her claim to be the friend of national freedom. We 
are pro-Germans in the sense that we and Germany have a com- 
mon enemy. We are pro-Germans in the sense in which Robert 
Emmet was pro-French. 

"England's war is not Ireland's war. England's enemies are 
not Ireland's enemies. As a separate and distinct nation, we claim 
the right to choose our own friends, and our own enemies, as 
freely as any other nation. We have no fear of being misunder- 
stood in foreign countries. They may stifle my voice, by keeping 
me out of the papers, by shutting me up in jail with the other 
chosen leaders of our race, or even by murdering me as they mur- 
dered so many who have gone before, but they cannot stifle the 



180 The Irish Republic 

voice of the electors of Cavan when they record their vote for 
Arthur Griffith, the man who has done so much to keep aUve in 
our day the glorious traditions of Ireland a nation." 

It is worthy of note, in passing, that here was the scholarly 
Catholic priest patriot placing before them the spirit of Emmet — 
Emmet the Protestant — as their patriotic guide. 



181 



CHAPTER XXXI 

Russell's noble reply to kipling 

RUDYARD KIPLING joined the assault on the Irish leaders. 
He accepted the government's charge of another German 
plot, though an ex parte statement, as convincing as far as he was 
concerned, and v^rote a poem, excoriating Catholic Ireland. 
George Russell ("AE") replied in what was his finest style, and 
what must go down in history as among the noblest pro patria 
orations of all time. His letter to Kipling follows : 

"Dear Sir: I speak to you, brother, because you have spoken 
to me, or rather, you have spoken for me. I am a native of Ulster. 
So far back as I can trace the faith of my forefathers, they have 
held the faith for whose free observance you are afraid. 

"You have Irish blood in you. I have heard, indeed, Ireland 
is your mother's land, and you may, perhaps, have some knowl- 
edge of Irish sentiment. You have ofifended against one of our 
noblest literary traditions in the manner in which you have pub- 
lished your thoughts. You begin by quoting Scripture. You 
preface your verses on Ulster by words from the mysterious 
oracles of humanity, as if you had been inflamed and inspired by 
the prophet of God, and you go on to sing of faith in peril and 
patriotism betrayed and the danger of death and oppression by 
those 'who murder by night,' which things, if one truly feels, he 
speaks of without consideration of commerce or what it shall 
profit him to speak. 

"But you, brother, have withheld your fears for your country 
and mine until they could yield you a profit in two continents. 
After all this high speech about the Lord and the hour of national 
darkness, it shocks me to find this following your verses : 'Copy- 
righted in the United States of America by Rudyard Kipling.' 
You are not in want. You are the most successful man of letters 
of your time, and yet you are not above taking profits out of the 
perils of your country. 

"I would not reason with you, but that I know there is some- 
thing truly great and noble in you, and there have been hours when 
the immortal in you secured your immortality in literature, when 
you ceased to see life with that hard cinematograph eye of yours, 
and saw with the eyes of the spirit, and power and tenderness and 
insight were mixed in magical tales. Surely you were far from 
the innermost when for the first time, I think, you wrote of your 



182 The Irish Republic 

mother's land and my countrymen. 

"I have Uved all my life in Ireland, holding a different faith 
from that held by the majority. I know Ireland as few Irishmen 
know it, county by county, for I traveled all over Ireland for 
years, and, Ulster man as I am, and proud of the Ulster people, I 
resent the crowning of Ulster with all the virtues and the dismissal 
of other Irishmen as 'thieves and robbers.' I resent the cruelty 
with which you, a stranger, speak of the mcst lovable and kindly 
people I know. 

"You are not even accurate in your history when you speak of 
Ulster's traditions and the blood our forefathers spilt. Over a 
century ago, Ulster was the strong and fast place of rebellion, and 
it was in Ulster that the volunteers stood beside their cannon and 
Wrung the gift of political freedom for the Irish parliament. You 
are blundering in your blame. You speak of Irish greed, and in 
I know not what connection, unless you speak of the war waged 
over the land; and yet you ought to know that both parties iri 
England have by act after act confessed the absolute justice and 
rightness of that agitation. Unionist no less than Liberal, and both 
boast of their share in answering the Irish appeal. They are both 
proud today of what they did. They made inquiry into wrong and 
redressed it. 

"But you, it seems, can only feel angry that intolerable condi- 
tions imposed by your laws were not borne in patience and silerice. 
For what party do you speak? When an Irishman has a grievance, 
you smite him. How differently would you have written of Run- 
nymede and the valiant men of England who rebelled whenever 
they thought fit. You would have made heroes out of them. . . . 
Have you no soul left, after admiring the rebels in your own 
history, to sympathize with other rebels suffering deeper wrongs? 
Can you not see deeper into the motives for rebellion than the 
hireling reporter who is sent to makeup a case for the pai^er or 
a party? 

"The best in Ulster, the best Unionists in Ireland, will not be 
grateful to you for libelling their countrymen in your verse. For, 
let the truth be known, the mass of Irish Unionists are much more 
in love with Ireland than with England. They think Irish Nation- 
alists are mistaken, and they fight with them, and they use hard 
words, and all the time they believe Irishmen of any party are bet- 
ter in the sight of God than Englishmen. They think Ireland is 
the best country in the world, and they hate to hear Irish people 
spoken of as 'murderers and greedy scoundrels.' 

"Murderers ! Why, there is more murder done in any four 
English shires in a year than in the whole of the four -pWDVinces 




Edward F. Dunne (Chicago) 
one of irish-american delegates to paris peace conference. 



The Irish Republic 183 

of Ireland. Greedy ! The nation never accepted a bribe, or took 
it as an equivalent or payment for an ideal, and what bribe would 
not have been offered to Ireland, if it had been willing to forswear 
its traditions? 

"I am a person whose whole being goes into a blaze at the 
thought of oppression of faith, and yet I think my Catholic coun- 
trymen infinitely more tolerant than those who hold the faith I was 
born in. I am a heretic judged by their standards, a heretic who 
has written and made public his heresies, and I have never suf- 
fered in friendship or found by my heresies an obstacle in life. 

"I set my knowledge, the know^ledge of a lifetime, against your 
ignorance, and I say you have used your genius to do Ireland and 
its people a wrong. You have intervened in a quarrel of which 
you do not know the merits, like any brawling bully who passes 
and only takes sides to use his strength. If there was a high court 
of poetry, and those in power jealous of the noble name of poet, 
and that none should use it save those who were truly knights of 
the Holy Ghost, they would hack the golden spurs from your heels 
and turn you out of the court. 

"You had the ear of the world, and you poisoned it with preju- 
dice and ignorance. You had the power of song, and you have 
always used it on behalf of the strong against the weak. You 
have smitten with all your might at creatures who are frail on 
earth but mighty in the heavens, at generosity, at truth, at justice, 
and heaven has withheld vision and powder and beauty from you, 
for this your verse is only a shallow newspaper article made to 
rhyme." 



184 



CHAPTER XXXII 



THE GAEL IN THE DOCK 



IRELAND'S martyrs to the cause of freedom always have dis- 
tinguished themselves in the dock. In the presence of the 
gallows they yet have maintained their proud spirits and defied 
His Majesty the King wdth their last breath. This spirit came 
down through the generations and it flared up now among the 
young "rebels" who derived their inspiration from De Valera and 
Pearse and Connolly and their associates. 

With the leaders packed ofi" to English prisons the government 
laid more heavily the stern arm of the military on their sym- 
pathizers and active supporters. Jails in Ireland began to fill up. 
Mere boys were haled to court for drilling in the fields and hills 
at night. Homes were raided all over the island in search of arms 
and ammunition. Clashes with the police and the military, as 
well as with paid informers, were frequent. 

Military rule, already so distasteful and irksome, was tighten- 
ing. Soldiers were everywhere — soldiers of the king. Their pres- 
ence inflamed the youth of Ireland. The young Sinn Feiners and 
Nationalists bore themselves in accordance with the traditions 
when they were arraigned before the magistrates on charges of 
all kinds. 

They refused to plead. They refused to answer questions. 
Their crowning defiance was their refusal to remove their hats in 
the presence of His Majesty's court officials. Instead they smiled. 
It was a sneer. They refused to recognize the right of an English- 
supported court of law in Ireland. 

They, by a concerted plan, finally made one statement. It 
was : 

"Nil meas madrad agam ar an gcuirt seo." 

Even the youthful "rebels" were educated, oftentimes to the 
confusion of His Majesty's court attaches. On being asked what 
they meant they only repeated : "Nil meas madrad agam ar an 
gcuirt seo." 

Which being interpreted is : 

"I haven't a dog's respect for this court." 



185 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



DECEMBER FOURTEENTH 



IRELAND'S answer to conscription and deportation was for- 
mally made on the succeeding election day, December 14, 1918. 
It was: Self-Determination. Out of 105 Parliamentary divisions 
in all Ireland Sinn Fein carried seventy-three, on the platform of 
complete separation from England. The issue was made un- 
equivocal. The Sinn Fein official manifesto on which the peo- 
ple were asked to express themselves with their ballots was as fol- 
lows : 

"The coming general election is fraught with vital possi- 
bilities for the future of our Nation. Ireland is faced with 
the question whether this generation wills it that she is to march 
out into the full sunlight of freedom, or is to remain in the 
shadow of a base imperialism that has brought and ever will 
bring in its train naught but evil for our race. Sinn Fein gives 
Ireland the opportunity of vindicatmg her honor and pursuing 
with renewed confidence the path of national salvation by rallying 
to the flag of the Irish Republic. 

"Sinn Fein aims at securing the establishment of that Re- 
public : First, by withdrawing the Irish representation from the 
British Parliament and by denying the right and opposing the 
will of the British government or any other foreign government 
to legislate for Ireland. 

"Second, by making use of any and every means available to 
render impotent the power of England to hold Ireland in subjec- 
tion by military force or otherwise. 

"Third, by the establishment of a Constituent Assembly com- 
prising persons chosen by Irish constituencies as the supreme na- 
tional authority to speak and act in the name of the Irish people, 
and to develop Ireland's social, political and industrial life for 
the welfare of the whole people of Ireland. 

"Fourth, by appealing to the Peace Conference for the estab- 
lishment of Ireland as an independent nation. At that confer- 
ence the future of the nations of the world will be settled on the 
principle of government by the consent of the governed. Ire- 
land's claim to the application of that principle in her favor is 
not based on any accidental situation arising out of the war. It is 
older than many, if not all of the present belligerents. It is based 
on our unbroken tradition of Nationhood; on a unity in a na- 



186 The Irish Republic 

tional name which has never been challenged ; on our possession 
of a distinctive national cuhure and social order ; on the moral 
courage and dignity of our people in the face of alien aggression; 
on the fact that in nearly every generation and five times within 
the past one hundred and twenty years our people have challenged 
in arms the right of England to rule this country. On these in- 
controvertible facts is based the claim that the people have beyond 
question established the right to be accorded all the powers of a 
free nation. 

"Sinn Fein stands less for a political power than for the 
Nation; it represents the old tradition of Nationhood handed 
down from dead generations ; it stands by the Proclamation of 
the Provisional Government of Easter, 1916, reasserting the 
inalienable right of the Irish nation to Sovereign Independence; 
reaffirming the determination of the Irish people to achieve it, and 
guaranteeing within the Independent Nation equal rights and 
equal opportunities to all its citizens. 

"Believing that the time has arrived when Ireland's voice for 
the principle of untrammelled national self-determination should 
be heard above every interest of party or class, Sinn Fein will 
oppose at the polls every individual candidate who does not accept 
this principle. The policy of our opponents stands condemned on 
any test, whether of principle or of expediency. The right of a 
nation to sovereign independence rests upon immutable natural 
law and cannot be made the subject of a compromise. Any at- 
tempt to barter away the sacred and inviolate rights of Nation- 
hood begins in dishonor and is bound to end in disaster. The en- 
forced exodus of millions of our people, the decay of our in- 
dustrial life, the ever-increasing financial plunder of our country, 
the whittling down of the demand for the repeal of the Union, 
voiced by the first Irish leader to plead in the Hall of the Con- 
queror to that of Home Rule on the Statute Book, and finally 
the contemplated mutilation of our country by partition, are 
some of the ghastly results of a policy that leads to national ruin. 
"Those who have endeavored to harness the people of Ireland 
to England's war-chariot, ignoring the fact that only a freely 
elected government in a free Ireland has power to decide for Ire- 
land the question of peace and war, have forfeited the right to 
speak for the Irish people. The green flag turned red in the 
hands of the leaders, but that shame is not to be laid at the doors 
of the Irish people unless they continue a policy of sending their 
representatives to an alien and hostile assembly whose powerful 
influence has been sufficient to destroy the integrity and sap the 
independence of their representatives. Ireland must repudiate 



The Irish Republic 187 

the men who, in a supreme crisis of the nation, attempted to sell 
her birthright for the vague promises of English Ministers and 
who showed their incompetence by failing to have even these 
promises fulfilled. 

"The present Irish members of the British Parliament consti- 
tute an obstacle to be removed from the path that leads to the 
Peace Conference. By declaring their will to accept the status 
of a province instead of boldly taking their stand upon the right 
of the Nation, they supply England with the only subterfuge at 
her disposal for obscuring the issue in the eyes of the world. By 
their persistent endeavors to induce the young manhood of Ire- 
land to don the uniform of our seven-century old oppressor and 
place their lives at the disposal of the military machine that holds 
our Nation in bondage, they endeavor to barter away and even 
to use against itself the one great asset still left to the Nation 
after the havoc of centuries. 

"Sinn Fein goes to the polls handicapped by all the arts and 
contrivances that a powerful and unscrupulous enemy can use 
against us. Conscious of the power of Sinn Fein to secure the 
freedom of Ireland, the British government would destroy it. 
Sinn Fein, however, goes to the polls confident that the people 
of this ancient nation will be true to the old cause and will vote 
for the men who stand by the principles of Tone, Emmet, Mitchel, 
Pearse and Connolly, the men who disdain to whine to the enemy 
for favors, the men who hold that Ireland must be as free as 
England or Holland or Switzerland or France, and whose demand 
is that the only status befitting this ancient realm is the status of 
a free Nation." 

De Valera, though still in his majesty's jail, anonunced himself 
a candidate in four divisions. His friends made a spectacular 
fight in East Mayo, where the two parties came to death grips be- 
hind the respective leaders, Dillon and De Valera. This was Dil- 
lon's home constituency which he had represented many years in 
Parliament. It was in the presence of the same constituency that 
De Valera had announced, at the meeting in May before his ar- 
rest, that there could be no compromise on the principles of the 
two parties. When the votes were counted it was found that De 
Valera had been elected by a majority of 4,461, out of a total vote 
of approximately 13,000. The result of this election in all Ire- 
land was : 

Sinn Fein — 73. 

Unionist — 26. 

Irish Party — 6. 

Sinn Fein carried the three Southern provinces solidly, with 



188 The Irish Republic 

the exception of one Independent Unionist in County Dublin, due 
to a division of the NationaHst vote, and one Constitutional Na- 
tionalist in Water ford. Counting the tv^enty-five uncontested 
seats, there were 1,012,221 votes for complete separation, to 289,- 
025 against. The vote for separation was 77.78 per cent of the 
total vote cast. The vote on all candidates by divisions was as 
follows : 

IRISH BOROUGHS 

DUBLIN— Clontarf— 

D. Mulcahy (S. F.) 5,974 

Sir P. Shortall (LP.) 3,228 

Sinn Fein majority 2,746 

College Green — 

Sean T. O'Kelly (S. F.) 9,662 

J. Coghlan Briscoe (Town Ten.) 2,853 

Sinn Fein majority 6,809 

Harbor Division — 

P. Shanahan (S. F.) 7,708 

Aid. A. Byrne (LP.) 5,368 

Sinn Fein majority 2,340 

St. James's — 

J. McGrath (S. F.) 6,256 

J. S. Kelly (LP.) 1,368 

Sinn Fein majority 4,882 

St. Michan's — 

M. Staines (S. F.) 7,553 

J. D. Nugent (LP) 3,996 

Sinn Fein majority 3,557 

St. Patrick's — 

Countess Markievicz (S. F.) 7,835 

William Field (LP.) 3,752 




Photo Copyright, U ndcrivood and Underwood. 

Frank P. Walsh 

IRISH-AMERICAN DELEGATE TO PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE. 



The Irish Republic 189 

Aid. J. J. Kelly (Ind.) 312 

Sinn Fein majority over LP 4,083 

Majority over I. P. and Ind. combined 3,771 

Stephen s Green — 

Aid. Tom Kelly (S. F.) 8,461 

P. J. Brady, Solr. (LP.) 2,902 

H. Hanna, K. C. (U.) 2,775 

S. F. majority over I. P 5,559 

Do. over U 5,686 

Do. over I. P. and U. combined 2,784 

BELFAST — Cromac Division — 

W. A. Lindsay (U) 11,459 

J. Freeland (Lab. Ind.) 2,508 

A. Savage (S. F.) 997 

LI. majority over Lab 8,951 

Do. over Lab. and S. F 7,954 

Dune aim Division — 

Sir E. Carson (U.) 11.637 

Major Davey (H. R.) 2,449 

Dr. Russell M'Nabb (S. F.) 271 

U. Maj. over H. R. and S. F 8,917 

Falls Division — 

Joseph Devlin (LP.) 8,438 

E. De Valera (S. F.) 3,045 

I. P. majority 5,393 

Or me ail Division — 

Thomas Moles (U.) 7,460 

\y. J. Stewart (I. U.) 4,833 

Seumas Dobbyn (S. F.) 338 

U. majority over I. U 2,627 

Do. over I. U. and S. F 2,289 

Potting er Division — 

Captain H. Dixon (U.) 8,574 



190 The Irish Republic 



S. C. Porter (Ind. Lab.) 2,513 

J. H. Bennett (Ind. Lab.) 659 

B. Campbell (S. F.) 393 

Unionist majority over combined opposition 5,009* 

St. Anne's Division — 

T. H. Burn (U.) 9,155 

W. H. Alexander (Ind.) 1,752 

Dermot Barnes (S. F.) 1,341 

U. majority over I. and S. F 6,062' 

Shankill Division — 

S. M'Guffin (U.) 1 1,840 

S. Kyle (Lab.) 3,674 

M. Carolan (S. F.) 934 

U. majority over Lab 8,166 

Do. over S. F 10,906 

Victoria Division — 

T. Donald (U.) 9,305 

R. Waugh (Lab.) 3,469 

Miss W. Carney (S. F.) 395 

U. majority over Lab 5,836 

Do. over Lab. and S. F 5,441 

Woodvale Division — 

R. J. Lynn (U.) 12,232 

R. Haskins (S. F.) 1,247 

Unionist majority 10,985 

Cork City (2 seats) — 

J. J. Walsh (S. F.) 20,8G^ 

Liam de Roiste (S. F.) 20,506 

Talbot Crosbie (LP.) 7,480 

R. O'Sullivan (LP.) 7,162 

D. Williams (U.) 2,519 

T. Farrington (U.) 2,254 

Lowest S. F. over best LP 13,026 



The Irish Republic 191 

Lowest S. F. over best U 17,987 

Lowest L P. and U. combined 10,507 

Derry City — 

J. MacNeill (S. F.) 7,335 

Sir R. Anderson (U.) 7,020 

Major W. Davey (LP.) 120 

S. F. majority over U 315 

Waterford City — 

Captain W. Redmond (LP.) 4,915 

Dr. White (S. F.) 4,441 

L P. majority. 474 

(Tlie figures at the previous election, which took place in 
March, following upon the vacancy created by the death of Mr. 
John Redmond, were: Captain Redmond, 1,242; Dr. White, 764; 
majority, 478.) 

How Leinster polled : 

COUNTY DUBLIN— North Dublin— 

Frank Lawless (S. F.) 9,138 

J. J. Clancy (LP.) 4,428 

S. F. majority 4,710 

South Dublin — 

Gavan Duffy (S. F.) 5,133 

Sir T. Robinson (U.) 4,354 

T. Clarke (LP.) 3,819 

S. F. majority over U 779 

S. F, majority over LP 1,314 

Pembroke Division — 

Desmond Fitzgerald (S. F.) 6,114 

J. P. Good (U.) 4,138 

C. P. O'Neill (LP.) 2,629 

S. F. majority over U 1,976 

Do. over LP 3,485 



192 The Irish Republic 

Rathmines and Rathgar — 

Sir Maurice Dockrell (U.) 7,400 

P. J. Little (S. F.) 5,566 

G. Moonan (LP.) 1,780 



U. majority over S. F 1,834 

Do. over LP 5,620 

Do. over S. F. and I. P. combined 54 

COUNTY KILDARE—Kildare North— 

A. Buckley (S. F.) 5,979 

J. O'Connor (LP.) 2,772 



S. F. majority 3,207 

Kildare South — 

Art. O'Connor (S. F.) 7,104 

Denis Kilbride (LP.) 1,545 



S. F. majority 5,559 

COUNTY KILKENNY —Kilkenny South— 

J. O'Mara (S. F.) 8,685 

M. Keating (LP.) 1,855 



S. F. majority 6,830 

County Longford — 

T. M'Guinness (S. F.) 11,122 

J. P. Farrell (LP.) 4,173 



S. F. majority 6,949 

LOUTH — County Louth — 

J. J. O'Kelly (S. F.) 10,770 

R. Hazleton (LP.) 10,515 



S. F. majority 255 

COUNTY M E AT H— North Meath— 

Liam Mellows (S. F.) 6,982 

Dr. Cusack (LP.) 3,758 



S. F. majority 3,224 



The Irish Republic 193 

South Meath — 

E. Duggan (S. F.) 6,371 

T. O'Donohue (LP.) 2,680 

S. F. majority 3,691 

QUEEN'S— -Queen's County — 

K. O'Higgins (S. F.) .' 13,452 

P. Meehan (LP.) 6,480 

S. F. majority 6,972 

WESTMEATH — County IVestmeath — 

L. Ginnell (S. F.) 12,435 

P. J. Weymes (LP.) 3,158 

Nugent (Ind. N.) 603 

S. F. majority over I. P 8,977 

S. F. over L P. and Ind. N 8,374 

COUNTY WEXFORD— Wexford, North— 

R. Sweetman (S. F.) 10,162 

Sir T. Esmonde (LP.) 7,189 

S. F. majority 2,973 

Wexford, South — 

Dr. James Ryan (S. F.) 8,729 

Peter Ffrench (LP.) 8,211 

S. F. majority 518 

COUNTY WICKLOW—East Wicklow— 

J. Etchingham (S. F.) 5,916 

A. P. Kenne (U.) 2,600 

D. J. Cogan (LP.)... 2,466 

S. F. majority over U 3.316 

S. F. majority over LP 3,450 

S. F. majority over both 850 

West Wicklow — 

R. C. Barton (S. F.) 6,239 



194 The Irish Republic 

The O'Mahony (LP.) 1,370 



S. F. majority .4,869 

Big Munster majorities: 

COUNTY LIMERICK— Limerick East— 

Dr. R. Hayes (S. F.) 12,750 

Thomas Lundon (I. P.) 3,608 



S. F. majority 9,142 

COUNTY TIPPERARY—Tipperary East— 

P. M'Cann (S. F.) 7,487 

T. J. Condon (I. P.) 4,794 



S. F. majority 2,693 

Tipperary South — 

P. J. Maloney (S. F.) 8,744 

J. CuUnan (LP.) 2,701 



S. F. majority 6,043 

Waterford — County Waterford — 

Cathal Erugha ( S. F.) 12,890 

J. O'Shea (LP.) 4,217 



S. F. maj ority 8,673 

Results in Ulster: 

COUNTY ANTRIM— Antrim North— 

Major P. Kerr-Smiley (U.) 9,621 

P. M'Corry (S. F.) 2,673 



Unionist majority 6,948 

Antrim Mid — 

Major Hon. H. O'Neill (U.) ■. 10,711 

D. J. Connelly (S. F.) 2,791 



Unionist majority 7,920 



The Irish Republic 195 

Antrim East— 

Lt.-Col. McCalmont (U.) 15,206 

D. Dumigan (S. Fj 8t)l 

Unionist majority 14,345 

Antrim South — 

Captain C. C. Craig (U.) 13,270 

K. O'Sheil {S. F.) 2,313 

Unionist majority 10,957 

COUNTY DERRY—Derry, North— 

Dr. H. Anderson (U.) 10,530 

P. McGilligan (S. Y.) 3,951 

Unionist majority 6,579 

Derry, South — 

Denis Henry, K. C. (U.) 8,942 

Professor Conway (i. P.) 3,981 

Louis Walsh (S. Y.) 3,425 

Unionist majority over LP 4,961 

Unionist majority over S. F 5,517 

COUNTY ARMAGH— North Armagh— 

Lt.-Col. W. J. Allen (U.) 10,239 

Ernest Blythe (S. F.) 2,860 

Unionist majority 7,379 

Armagh Mid. — - 

J. R. Lonsdale (U.) 8,431 

Professor L. O'Brien (S. F.) 5,689 

Unionist majority 2,742 

Armagh, South — 

Patrick Donnelly (LP.) 4,345 

Dr. M'Kee (S. F.) (retired) 79 

(This was one of the compromise seats.) 

COUNTY DONEGAL— Doneqal, North— 
Joseph O'Doherty (S. F.) .^ 7,003 



196 The Irish Republic 

Philip O'Doherty (LP.) 3,075 

Sinn Fein majority 3,928 

Donegal, West — 
T. Sweeney (S. F.) 6,712 

D. MacMenamin (LP.) 4,116 

Sinn Fein majority 2,596 

Donegal, East — 

E. J. Kelly (LP.) 7,596 

R. L. Moore (U.) 4,797 

S. O'Flaherty (S. F.) (withdrawn) 40 

Nationalist majority 2,799 

(This was one of the compromise seats.) 

Donegal, South — 

Peter J. Ward (S. F.) 5,787 

John T. Donovan (LP.) 4,752 

Sein Finn majority 1,035 

COUNTY DOWN— Down, East— 

D. D. Reid (U.) 6,007 

M. J. Johnston (LP.) 4,321 

Dr. McNabb (S. F.) 3,876 

Unionist majority over LP 1,686 

This seat was lost to the Nationalists through Irish Party 
breach of Cardinal's arrangement. It will be noted that the com- 
bined Nationalist majority over the Unionist poll is 2,190 — but 

the Unionist gets the seat. 

Down, Mid. — 

Colonel Sir J. Craig (U.) 10,639 

Joseph Robinson ( S. F. ) 707 

Unionist majority 9,932 

Down, North — 

T. W. Brown (U.) 9,200 

J. A. Davidson (Ind.) 2,153 

Unionist majority 7,047 



The Irish Republic 197 

Down, South — 

J. McVeagh (LP.) 8,756 

J. W. Johnston (U.) 5,573 

A. Fisher (Soldiers' Fed.) 436 

E. de Valera (S. F.) (withdrawn) 33 



Nat. majority over U 3,183 

(This was one of the compromise seats.) 

Down, IV est — 

D. M. Wilson (U.) 10,559 

B, Campbell (S. F.) 1,725 



Unionist majority 8,834 

COUNTY FERMANAGH— Fermanagh, North— 

E. M. Archdale (U.) 6,768 

Kevin O'Shiel (S. F.) 6,236 



Unionist majority 532 

Fermanagh, South — 

Sean O'Mahony (S. F.) 6,673 

James Cooper (U.) 4,524 

P. Crumley (I. P.) (withdrawn) 132 



S. F. majority over U 2,149 

COUNTY MONAGHAN—Monaghan, North- 
Ernest Blythe (S. F.) f 6,842 

Michael E. Knight (U.) 4,497 

J. J. Turley (I. P.) 2,709 



S. F. majority over Unionist 2,345 

S. F. majority over I. P 4,133 

Monaghan, South — 

J. MacEntee (S. F.) 7,524 

T. J. Campbell (I. P.) 4,413 



Sinn Fein majority 3,111 

COUNTY TYRONE— Tyrone, N. E.— 
T. J. S. Harbison (I. P.) 11,605 



198 The Irish Republic 

K. Houston (U.) 6,681 

Sean Milroy (S. F.) (withdrawn) 56 

Nationalist majority over U 4,924 

(This was one of the compromise Ulster seats.) 

Tyrone, N. W. 

Arthur Griffith (S. F.) 10,442 

W. T. Miller (U.) 7,696 



Sinn Fein majority 2,746 

Tyrone, South — 

WiUiam Coote (U.) 10,616 

Denis M'Cullagh (S. F.) 5,437 

J. Skeffington (LP.) 2,602 



Unionist majority over S. F 5,179 

Unionist majority over LP 7,014 

Unionist majority over both 2,577 

"The West's Awake." 

COUNTY GALWAY—Connemara— 

Padraic O'Maille (S. F.) 11,754 

W. O'Malley (LP.) 3,482 



Sinn Fein majority 8,272 

Galway, North — 

Dr. Cusack (S. F.) 8,896 

T. Sloyan (LP.) 3,999 



Sinn Fein majority 4,897 

Galway, South — 

Frank Fahy (S. F.) 10,621 

W. J. Dufify (LP.) 1,744 



Sinn Fein majority 8,877 

LEITRIM — County Leitrim — 
James Dolan (S. F.) 17,711 



The Irish Republic 199 

G. Farrell (LP.) 3,096 

Sinn Fein majority 14,615 

COUNTY MAYO— Mayo, West— 

Joseph M'Bride (S. F.) 10,195 

William Doris (LP.) 1,568 

Sinn Fein majority 8,627 



Mayo, North — ■ 

Dr. Crowley (S. F.) 7,429 

Daniel Boyle (LP.) 1,861 

Sinn Fein majority 5,568 

Mayo, East — 

E. De Valera (S. F.) 8,975 

J. Dillon (LP.) 4,514 

Sinn Fein majority 4,461 

COUNTY ROSCOMMON— Roscommon, South— 

H. Roland (S. F.) 10,685 

J. P. Hayden (LP.) 4,233 

Sinn Fein majority 6,452 

COUNTY SLIGO—SUqo, South— 

A. M'Cabe (S. F.) ! 9,113 

L O'Dowd (LP.) 1,988 



Sinn Fein majority 7,125 

Siigo, North— 

L J. Clancy (S. F.) 9,030 

T. Scanlan (LP.) 4,242 



Sinn Fein majority 4,788 

Following was the result, previously recorded, of the elections 
in the Universities : 

National University — 
MacNeill (S. F.) 1,671 



200 The Irish Republic 

Conway (Ind.) 831 

Majority for MacNeill 840 

Queen's University, Belfast — 

Sir William Whitla ( U.) 1,487 

Mr. Sean Dolan (S. F.) 118 

Majority for Whitla 1,369 

Dublin University {Trinity College) — 2 members — 

Arthur W. Samuels, K. C. (U.) 1,273 

Sir Robert Woods (U.) 793 

W. M. Jellett, K. C. (U.) 631 

Capt. Stephen Gwynn (Ind. Nat.) 257 

Majority for Samuels over Jellett and Gwynn 383 

Majority for Woods over Jellett 162 

The members of the Irish representation, according to prov- 
inces and parties, are subjoined. Those marked * were returned 
unopposed, and those marked f were members at the time of the 
dissolution : 

Leinster — 
N. Dublin— F. Lawless (S. F.) 
S. Dublin— G. Duffy (S. F.) 
Rathmines— Sir M. Dockrell (U.) 
Pembroke — D. Fitzgerald (S. F.) 
N. Kildare— D. Buckley (S. F.) 
S. Kildare— A. O'Connor (S. F.) 
N. Kilkenny — W. T. Cosgrove*f (S. F.) 
S. Kilkenny — James O'Mara (S. F.) 
Longford — Joseph M'Guinnessf fS. F.) 
Louth— J. J". O'Kelly (S. F.) 
N. Meath— Liam Mellows (S. F.) 
S. Meath— E. J. Duggan, solr. (S. F.) 
Westmeath— L. Ginnellf (S. F.) 
Queen's County — K. O'Higgins (S. F.) 
King's Co.— Dr. P. McCartan*t (S. F.) 
N. Wexford— R. M. Sweetman (S. F.) 
S. Wexford — Dr. James Ryan (S. F.) 
E. Wicklow— J. R. Etchingham (S. F.) 
W. Wicklow— R. C. Barton (S. F.) 



The Irish Republic 201 

Carlow — James Lennon* (S. F.) 

Dublin City — 
Clontarf— R. Mulcahy (S. F.) 
Harbor — P. Shanahan (S. F.) 
St. Michan's— M. Staines (S. F.) 
College Green— S. T. O'Kelly (S. F.) 
St. James— J. M'Grath (S. F.) 
Stephen's Green — T. Kelly (S. F.) 
St. Patrick's— Mme. Markievicz (S. F.) 

Ulster — 
N. Donegal — Joseph O'Doherty (S. F.) 
S. Donegal— P. J. Ward (S. F.) 
E. Donegal— E. J. Kellyf (LP.) 
W. Donegal — Joseph Sweeney (S. F.) 
N. Monaghan— E. Blythe (S. F.) 
S. Monaghan — Sean M'Entee (S. F.) 
N. Antrim^ — Major Kerr Smileyf (U.) 
S. Antrim — Captain Craigf (U.) 
E. Antrim— Colonel M'Calmontf (U.) 
Mid. Antrim— Major H. O'Neillf (U.) 
N.Armagh — Colonel Allenf (U.) 
S. Armagh— P. Donnellyf (LP.) 
Mid. Armagh — J. R. Lonsdalef (U.) 
N. Derry — Dr. Anderson (U.) 
S. Derry— D. Henryf (U.) 
N. Down— T. W. Brown (U.) 
W. Down— D. M. Wilson (U.) 
M. Down — Sir J. Craigf (U.) 
S. Down— J. MacVeaght (LP.) 
E. Down— D. D. Reid (U.) 
N. Fermanagh — E. Archdalef (U.) 
S. Fermanagh — J. O'Mahony (S. F.) 
N. W. Tyrone— A. Griffith (S. F.) 
N. E. Tyrone— T. J. S. Llarbisonf (LP.) 
S. Tyrone — W. Cooterf (U.) 
E. Cavan— A. Griffith*! (S. F.) 
W. Cavan— P. Galligan* (S. F.) 
Derry City— Eoin MacNeill (S. F. ) 

Belfast City — 
Falls— J. Devlinf (LP.) 
Woodvale— R. J. Lynn (U.) 



202 The Irish Republic 

Duncairn — Sir E. Carsonf (U.) 
Cromac — W. A. Lindsay f (U.) 
St. Anne's— T. H. Burn (U.) 
ShankiU— S. M'Guffin (U.) 
Victoria— T. Donald (U.) 
Pottinger — Captain H. Dixon (U.) 
Ormeau— T. Moles (U.) 

Munster — 
N. Cork— P. O'Keefe* (S. F.) 
N. E. Cork— T. Hunter* (S. F.) 
Mid. Cork— T. MacSwiney* (S. F.) 
E. Cork— D. Kent* (S. F.) 
S. Cork— M. Collins* (S. F.) 
S. E. Cork- D. Lynch* (S. F.) 
W. Cork— S. Hayes* (S. F.) 
E. Clare— E. De Valera*t (S. F.) 
W. Clare— B. O'Higgins* (S. F.) 
N. Kerry— J. Crowley* (S. F.) 
S. Kerry— F. Lynch* (S. F.) 
E. Kerry— P. Beasley* (S. F.) 
W. Kerry— A. Stack* (S. F.) 
E. Limerick— Dr. H. Hayes (S. F.) 
W. Limerick — C. Collins* (S. F.) 
N. Tipperary — Jos. MacDonagh* (S. F.) 
Mid. Tipperary— J. A. Burke, B. L.* (S. F.) 
S. Tipperary— J. J. Maloney (S. F.) 
E. Tipperary — P. McCann (S. F.) 
Waterford Co.— Cathal Brugha (S. F.) 

Cork City (2 members)— J. J. Walsh (S. F.), L. de Roiste (S. F.) 
Waterford City — Capt. Redmondf (L P.) 
Limerick City— M. P. Colivet* (S. F.) 

Connacht — 
N. Roscommon — Count Plunkett*t (S. F.) 
S. Roscommon — H. Boland (S, F.) 
N. Mayo— Dr. Crowley (S. F.) 
S. Mayo— William Sears* (S. F.) 
W. Mayo— J. MacBride (S. F.) 
E. Mayo— E. De Valera (S. F.) 
N. Galway— Dr. B. Cusack (S. F.) 
E. Galway — Liam Mellows* (S. F.) 
S. Galway — F. Fahy (S. F.) 
Connemara — P. O'Maille (S. F.) 



The Irish Republic 203 

Leitrim — J. N. Dolan (S. F.) 
N. Sligo— J. J. Clancy (S. F.) 
S. Sligo— A. M'Cabe (S. F.) 

Universities — 
Dublin— A. W. Samuels (U.), Sir R. Woods (I. U.) 
National — Eoin MacNeill (S. F.) 
Queen's, Belfast— Sir W. Whitla (U.) 

The professional element, the Irish Independent pointed out, 
was well represented amongst the candidates. Sinn Fein provided 
eight doctors, five solicitors and five barristers. Among the Irish 
Party candidates were one doctor, seven solicitors, eight barristers, 
and one King's Counsel. The Unionist candidates included : 
Three doctors, six King's Counsel, and seven barristers ; seven 
military officers. 

Among the Sinn Fein members are : Five doctors, two solici- 
tors, four barristers; the six members of the Irish party left in- 
clude three barristers and two solicitors, Mr. Devlin being the 
only layman. 

Out of the seventeen professional gentlemen amongst the 
Unionist candidates, two lawyers, Mr. Hanna, K. C, and Mr. 
Weir Johnson, were defeated. 

The following are Sinn Fein M. P.'s who were in jail when 
elected, some of whom are still there (July, 1919). Those in 
English prisons were not brought to trial since their arrest in 
May, 1918 : 

E. De Valera, A. Griffith, W. Cosgrove. Count Plunkett. A. 
Stack, F. Lynch, J. Crowley, V. S. ; P. O'Keefe, T. Hunter, T. 
MacSwiney, M. P. Colivet, B. O'Higgins, P. Galligan, J. Len- 
non, J. MacDonagh, J. M'Grath, Madame Markievicz, F. Law- 
less, D. Fitzgerald, E. Blythe, J. O'Mahony, Dr. B. Cusack, F. 
Fahy, A. O'Connor, Dr. Hayes, J. MacGuinness, J. MacBride, 
Sean MacEntee, J. J. Clancy, A. MacCabe, P. MacCann, and J. 
R. Etchingham, 

Deported to America — Diarmuid Lynch. 

"On the run," or evading arrest — P. Beasley, Dr. Patrick Mc- 
Cartan, Michael Collins, C. Collins, J. J. Walsh, Liam de Roiste, 
Padraic O'Maille, Harry Boland (De Valera's secretary), Cathal 
Brugha, and Liam Mellows. Thirty-two Sinn Fein M. P.'s were 
in prison, one was deported, and ten were "on the run" when 
elected to the English Parliament. 

Eight Sinn Fein candidates stood for more than one seat, Mr. 
De Valera having been nominated for no less than four, namely, 



204 The Irish Republic 

E. Clare (unopposed), E. Mayo (won), Falls, Belfast and S. 
Down. The seven others who stood for two seats were A. Griffith, 
Dr. M'Nabb, B. Campbell, K. O'Shiel, E. Blythe, J. MacNeill, and 
Liam Mellows. Five Sinn Feiners were elected each to two 
constituencies — Messrs. De Valera, Griffith, Blythe, MacNeill, 
and Mellows. The effect of the double returns was that sixty- 
eight individual Sinn Fein members were elected for seventy- 
three seats. 

"The most sensational defeat was that of Mr. Dillon," recorded 
The Independent. "It was a]iparent from the outset that Sinn Fein 
had a huge following in the constituency ; but it was not generally 
anticipated that Mr. De Valera would win by the huge majority 
of four thousand, four hundred and sixty-one. Judging from Mr. 
Dillon's speeches during the campaign he does not intend to look 
for another seat or to get his decimated followers to resign a 
constituency in his favor. He said on November twenty-third, 
that if he did not win E. Mayo, he would take no other seat. Two 
days later he declared he was certain he was going to win by an 
overwhelming majority." 



205 



CHAPTER XXXIV 



THE DAIL EIREANN 



AS soon as the results of the elections were made known the 
Sinn Fein party took immediate steps, in accordance with 
the election pronouncements, to formally convene and proclaim 
the provisional establishment of the Irish Republic. The delegates, 
being the elected Sinn Fein members of the British Parliament 
\vho were not in jail, met at the Mansion House in Dublin on 
January 21, 1919, to issue their Declaration of Independence and 
lay down the general outline of the new constitution. An invita- 
tion had been sent to both the Unionists and the Irish Party mem- 
bers of the British Parliament chosen in the recent election. None 
of these responded. 

The Dail Eireann assembled with marked solemnity and an en- 
thusiasm that could not be wholly suppressed. The proceedings 
of the Dail, except the reading of the English and French trans- 
lations of the declaration, were conducted in the Irish language, 
no speeches being made in English. 

The scene inside the Round Room was a particularly animated 
one, the Irish I vide pendent recorded. The Lord Mayor occupied 
a seat behind the members, for whom the front position was re- 
served, the rear and side galleries being set apart for their mem- 
bers. The entire space was filled. Madame MacBride, recently 
released from prison, entered practically unrecognized, but some 
cheers were raised. An Australian officer in khaki, seemingly a 
chaplain, was accorded a rousing reception as he arrived, while 
the entry of two American naval officers in uniform was the sig- 
nal for a scene of great enthusiasm. The officers smilingly saluted 
the gathering. 

The President's chair was placed under the Lord Mayor's 
"arms" on the dais, and in front were chairs for the Feisiri Dail 
Eireann. The doors were opened at 3 o'clock, but stewards reg- 
ulated the rush, and everything worked with the smoothness of a 
machine. Cheers, again and again renewed, were given as Count 
Plunkett led the way to the dais, accompanied by Cathal Brugha, 
Eoin MacNeill and others. 

There were probably fifty clergymen present, and the audience 
included a great number of women. When the Lord Mayor took 
his seat, amidst a salvo of cheers, Count Plunkett, looking in 
splendid health, dignified and spruce, proposed that Cathal Brugha 
take the chair, and that gentleman, whose adventures with a 



206 The Irish Republic 

Thurles policeman was still fresh in the public mind, took the 
chair, opening the proceedings with a brief speech in Irish. The 
roll was called in Irish, and Father Michael O'Flanagan recited 
an Irish prayer, invoking divine guidance for the proceedings. 

Several colonial soldiers were amongst the spectators. The 
chairman's injunction that there should be no cheering was faith- 
fully complied with. After referring to the invitation sent out, he 
quoted Wolfe Tone as having said that the people of Ireland who 
wanted to save the country would have to do it without the help 
of those who looked to the foreigner. In an allusion to those in 
prison he described Madame Markievicz as "one of the noblest 
and bravest women that ever lived." 

The entire waiting audience rose when the Republican mem- 
bers, as they are now officially styled, entered the Round Room 
shortly after 3 r30. Prolonged cheers greeted them, women espe- 
cially being particularly demonstrative in waving miniature flags 
and handkerchiefs. Count Plunkett led the procession to the 
benches, and, speaking in Irish, proposed Mr. Cathal Brugha as 
chairman for the day. Mr. P. O'Maille (Connemara), seconded, 
and the motion was carried amid applause. Mr. Brugha, on as- 
suming the chair, said in Irish that they had come there to under- 
take the most important task ever done in Ireland since the Eng- 
lish entered the land, and before going further they should ask 
help from God upon their proceedings. For this purpose he called 
upon "the priest who is dearest to the people of Ireland — Rev. 
Michael O'Flanagan — to offer for us a prayer to the Holy Spirit, 
imploring His aid and blessing on our proceedings." 

Father O'Flanagan, who was welcomed with cheers, then stood 
on the p'ptform and recited a short prayer in Irish for the success 
of the assembly, all present standing. 

The following were appointed clerks: Messrs. D. O'Hegarty, 
S. Nunan, P. Sheehan and Richard Foghludha. 

The president next read the roll of members invited, and there 
was laughter when the name of Sir Edward Carson was read 
out. When the names of the Sinn Fein members in prison were 
called out, the answer was given in Irish: "In jail." The follow- 
ing is an official list of the twenty-nine members in attendance : 

Count Plunkett, R. Mulcahv, S. T. O'Kelly, P. O'Maille, J. 
Hayes, E. MacNeill, J. O'Dohefty, P. Ward, S.J. O'Sweeney, G. 
Dufify, P. O'Shanahan, P. Beaslai, D. Buckley, E. Duggan, C. 
Brugha, R. M. Sweetman. Dr. Rvan, C. Collins. T- T- O'Kellv, 
Dr. Crowley, H. Boland, J. liurke, B. L. ; P. J. Maloney, R. C 
Barton, K. O'Higgins, M. Staines, |. ]. Walsh, M. Collins and 
Aid. T. Kelly. 



The Irish Republic 207 

The constitution of the new assembly was next read by the 
chairman. The following is a translation : 

Section One — Dail Eireann shall possess full powers to legis- 
late and shall be composed of delegates (Teachfai), chosen by the 
people of Ireland, from the present constituencies of the country. 

Section Two — (1) Full executive powers shall be had at any 
time by the Ministry (Aireacht) in office at the time. 

(2) The Ministry shall be composed of the following: A 
Prime Minister (Priemh-aireach) chosen by the Dail Eireann, 
and four other Ministers, viz. : Minister of Finance (Aireach Air- 
gid) ; Minister of Home Affairs (A. Gnothai Duthchais) ; Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs (A. Gnothai Coitjcrioch) ; and Minister 
of Defense {A. Cosanta). The Prime Minister shall nominate the 
four others, and shall have power to dismiss them from office. 

(3) Every Minister must be a member of the Dail, and shall 
at all times be answerable to the Dail. 

(4) The names of Ministers must be put before the Dail for 
ratification at the first assembly after their nomination by the 
Prime Minister. 

(5) The Prime Minister shall hold ofiice as soon as elected, 
and the other ministers as soon as tlieir appointment is ratified 
by the Dail. 

(6) The Dail shall have power by vote to dismiss the Min- 
istry or any of the Ministers from office, if a written order in the 
form of a unanimous resolution be presented for that object seven 
days previously. 

Section Three — Every meeting of the Dail shall be presided 
over by a Chief-of-Council {Ceann Comhairle) , or Vice-Chief-of- 
Council {Ceann lonaid), chosen by the Dail for the year. Should 
the Chief-of-Council and Vice-Chief be absent, the Dail shall 
select substitutes or elect a Provisional Chief-of-Council (Ceann 
Comhairle Sealadach). 

Section Four — The Ministry shall receive whatever finance it 
needs by vote of the Dail. The Ministry shall be answerable to 
the Dail for such finances, and the accounts shall be audited with 
regard to the spending of money for the Dail, twice yearly, viz., 
at Samhain and Bcaltaine (November and May). The auditing 
shall be carried out by an auditor or auditors chosen by the Dail. 
No member of the Dail shall be chosen as auditor. 

Section Five — The present is a Provisional Constitution, and 
may be altered on a written unanimous order being given to that 
effect seven days previously. 

Its adoption was proi)osed by Mr. S. T. Kelly (College 
Green), who said the Constitution was short and elastic in its 



208 The Irish Republic 

present form, and would require expansion as time went on, and 
as new measures and methods became necessary. At present they 
were only laying the foundations of the future state. Mr. J. 
Hayes (W. Cork), seconded, and it was passed unanimously. 

The President next read the Declaration of Independence in 
Irish, all the members standing. 

Mr. Duggan read the Declaration in English . 

Mr. Gavan Duffy next read the Declaration in French. 

Mr. Beaslai (E. Kerry) seconded the adoption of the Declara- 
tion. 

Mr; O'Maille (Connemara), in proposing as delegates to the 
Peace Conference Messrs. Edward De Valera, Arthur Griffith, 
and Count Plunkett, said there was a proverb that says: "God 
helps those who help themselves." They should, in approaching 
the Peace Conference, show that, while seeking its help, they were 
prepared to do all in their power to help themselves,' and so to 
carry forward their eft"orts in Ireland. 

Dr. Ryan (S. Wexford), in seconding, said that two of the 
delegates were in English jails, but thank God, it would not be 
long before they would be with them once again. The motion was 
carried. 

_ Mr. Beaslai read the program of the Republican Party in 
Irish. It was read by Alderman Kellv in English. Mr. Mulcahy 
proposed the adoption of the program'. Mr. Con Collins seconded 
the adoption. The resolution was unanimously passed, and the 
proceedings were adjourned. The business was concluded in one 
hour and thirty-five minutes. 

Mr. J. J. Kelly (Sceilg) (Louth) read the message to the Free 
Nations of the World, which was read by Count Plunkett in Eng- 
lish. The English version runs : 

I'To the Nations of the World, Greeting: 

"The Nation of Ireland, having proclaimed her National Inde- 
pendence, calls, through her elected representatives in Parliament 
assembled, in the Irish capital, on January twenty-first, 1919, upon 
every free nation to support the Irish Republic by recognizing Ire- 
land's national status, and her right to its vindication of the Peace 
Congress. 

"Nationally, the race, the language, the customs and traditions 
of Ireland are radically distinct from the English ; Ireland is one 
of the most ancient nations of Europe, and she has preserved her 
national integrity, vigorous and intact, through seven centuries of 
foreign oppression ; she has never relinquished her national rights 
and throughout the long era of English usurpation defiantly pro- 
claimed her inalienable right of nationhood down to her last 



r 
r 

O 
> 




The Irish Republic 209 

glorious resort to arms in 1916. 

"Internationally, Ireland is the gateway to the Atlantic. Ire- 
land is the outpost of Europe towards the west; Ireland is the 
point upon which great trade routes between east and west con- 
verge; her independence is demanded by the freedom of the seas; 
her great harbors must be open to all nations, instead of being the 
monopoly of England. Today these harbors are empty and idle 
solely because English policy is determined to retain Ireland as 
a barren bulwark for English aggrandizement, and the unique 
geographical position of this island, far from being a benefit and 
safeguard to Europe and America, is subjected to the purposes of 
England's policy of world dominion. 

"Ireland today reasserts her historic nationhood the more con- 
fidently before the new world emerging from the war because she 
believes in freedom and justice as the fundamental principles of 
international law, because she believes in a frank co-operation 
between the peoples for equal rights against the vested privileges 
of ancient tyrannies, because the permanent peace of Europe can 
never be secured by perpetuating military dominion for the profit 
of empire, but only by establishing the control of government in 
every land upon the basis of the free will of a free people, and the 
existing state of war between Ireland and England can never be 
ended until Ireland is definitely evacuated by the armed forces of 
England. 

"For these, among other reasons, Ireland — absolutely and ir- 
revocably determined, at the dawn of the promised era of self- 
determination and liberty, that she will suffer foreign dominion no 
longer — calls upon every free nation to uphold her national claim 
to complete independence as an Irish Republic against the arro- 
gant pretensions of England, founded in fraud and sustained only 
by an overwhelming military occupation, and demands to be con- 
fronted publicly with England at tlie Congress of Nations, that 
the civilized world, having judged between English wrong and 
Irish right, may guarantee to Ireland its permanent support for 
the maintenance of her national independence." 

Proposing the adoption of the message, Mr. MacNeill said 
they were not asking the nations for charity, but to perform an 
act that would be of benefit to themselves. Irish freedom was 
necessary to the peace of the world. Ireland sought not charity, 
but her rights alone. The present assembly was more representa- 
tive, more national, than any other gathering held in Ireland for 
hundreds of years, and proved that the National Will endorsed the 
appeal. The motion was unanimously passed. 



210 



CHAPTER XXXV 

Ireland's claim to independence. 

Ir was one thing to declare a republic and quite another to have 
it recognized at Paris. De Valera, Plunkett and Griffith were 
denied passports to the Peace Conference by the British govern- 
ment. Meantime, at a great convention of the American Friends 
of Irish Freedom in Philadelphia, it was decided to send a dele- 
gation to France to plead for Erin. The convention named for- 
mer Governor Edward F. Dunne of Chicago, Michael J. Ryan, the 
Philadelphia banker, and Frank P. Walsh, formerly chairman of 
the Federal Trade Board. They proceeded to Paris, and were 
promptly turned down, but not until they had laid the founda- 
tion for a world sympathy for Ireland. They subsequently man- 
aged to get into Ireland and there confer with the leaders of the 
provisional government. The result was the placing before Pre- 
mier Clemenceau of the formal "Magna Charta" of the new gov- 
ernment — the specific reason why Ireland laid claim to independ- 
ence. But England was the doorkeeper at the Hall of Mirrors 
and Ireland's "Magna Charta" went into the waste basket along 
with China's and others. 

The claim was presented by Sean T. O'Ceallaigh and G. Gavan 
Duffy, Irish envoys to Paris. The statement was printed on 
parchment in French, Irish and English. Along with the state- 
ment and a covering letter from Messrs. De Valera, Griffith and 
Plunkett, the following communication was handed to M. Clemen- 
ceau's secretary. 

"M. le President: Upon the instruction of the elected govern- 
ment of the Irish Republic, we desire to hand you, in your capacity 
of president of the Peace Conference, the enclosed memorandum 
in support of the claim of Ireland to recognition as a sovereign 
state. This memorandum sets out the definite official basis and 
justification of the claim of Ireland. It is accompanied by a cov- 
ering letter from Messrs. De Valera and Griffith and Count 
Plunkett, the delegates appointed by the Parliament of the Irish 
Republic. 

"Permit us very respectfully to take this opportunity of ask- 
ing you to be good enough to remind the members of the Confer- 
ence that it would hardly be ])ossible for the Conference to do 
justice to Ireland without having heard the Irish delegates in 
support of their memorandum. If, however, you should find it 
impossible to procure the necessar}^ safe conduct for these dele- 



The Irish Republic 211 

gates, we shall be happy to hold ourselves at your disposal, and 
at the disposal of the Conference, in their stead, upon hearing 
from you the honor of an appointment. 

(Signed) "Sean T. O'Ceallaigh, 

"G. Gavan Duffy." 

Following is the official letter which accompanied the memor- 
andum : 

"M. Georges Clemenceau, President of the Peace Conference, 
Paris. 

"Sir: On May 17, we forwarded to you a note requesting you 
to warn the Conference that the Irish people will not be bound by 
the signatures of the English or British delegation to the Confer- 
ence, inasmuch as these delegates do not represent Ireland. We 
now further request that you will provide an opportunity for the 
consideration by the Conference of Ireland's claims to be recog- 
nized as an independent sovereign state. We send you herewith 
a general memorandum of the case, and beg to direct your atten- 
tion in particular to the following: 

"1. That the rule of Ireland by England has been and is now 
intolerable ; that it is contrary to the constitutions of liberty and 
justice, and as such, on the grounds of humanity alone, should be 
ended by the Conference. 

"2. That the declared object of the Conference is to establish 
a lasting peace, which is admittedly impossible if the legitimate 
claims for self-determination of nations such as Ireland be denied. 

"3. That incorporated with the peace treaty under considera- 
tion is a covenant establishing a League of Nations intended, 
among other things, to confirm and perpetuate the political rela- 
tionships and conditions established by the treaty. It is clear that 
it is radically unjust to seek to confirm and perpetuate what is es- 
sentially wrong, that it is indefensible to refuse the examination 
of title that confirms the position, such as provided by the draft 
covenant of the League of Nations is intended to do. 

"Ireland definitely denies that England or Britain can show 
any just claim or title to Ireland, and demands an opportunity for 
her representatives to appear before the Peace Conference to re- 
fute any such claim. We feel that these facts are sufficient basis 
to merit for our request the consideration which we feel sure you 
will give them. Please accept the assurance of our great esteem. 

"Eamonn De Valera, 
"Arthur Griffith, 
"George Noble Count Plunkett." 

The memorandum in support of Ireland's claim for recogni- 



212 The Irish Republic 

tion as a sovereign independent state is as follows : 

"Ireland is a nation, not merely for the reason which in the 
case of other countries has been taken as sufficient — that she has 
claimed at all times and still claims to be a nation, but also be- 
cause, even though no claim was put forward on her behalf, his- 
tory shows her to be a distinct nation from remotely ancient times. 

"For over a thousand years, Ireland possessed and fully exer- 
cised sovereign independence, and was recognized throughout 
Europe as a distinct sovereign state. The usurpation of the for- 
eigner has always been disputed and resisted by the mass of the 
Irish people. At various times since the coming of the English, 
the Irish nation has exercised its sovereign rights as opportunity 
offered. The hope of recovering its full and permanent sov- 
ereignty has always been alive in the breasts of the Irish people, 
and has been the inspiration and the mainspring of their political 
activities abroad as well as at home. 

"English statecraft has long and persistently striven to force 
the Irish people to abandon this hope. The English policy of re- 
pression, spiritual and material, has ever been active from rhe 
first intrusion of English power until the present day. 

"English policy has always aimed at keeping every new accre- 
tion of population from without separate from the rest of the na- 
tion, and a cause of distraction and weakness in its midst. 
Nevertheless, the Irish nation has remained one with a vigorous 
consciousness of its nationality, and has always succeeded, sooner 
or later, in assimilating to its unity every new element of popula- 
tion. 

"The Irish nation has never been intolerant toward its minori- 
ties and has never harbored the spirit of prosecution. Such bar- 
barities as punishment by torture, witch burning, capital punish- 
ment for minor offenses, etc., so frequent in the judicial system 
of other countries, found no recognition in Irish law or custom. 

"Twice in the seventeenth century — in 1642-8 and in 1689 — 
when, after periods of terrible persecution and deprivation of 
lands and liberty the Irish people recovered for a time a domi- 
nant political power, they worked in laws and treaties a policy of 
full religious equality for all dwellers in the island. 

"On each occasion this policy of tolerance was reversed by the 
English power, which, on recovering its mastery, subjected the 
Irish race to further large confiscations of property, restrictions 
of liberty and religious persecutions. More recently, notwith- 
standing the English policy of maintaining as complete a sev- 
erance as possible, when Irish Protestants became attracted to 
the support of the National case, the Catholics of Ireland accorded 



The Irish Republic 213 

political leadership to a succession of Protestant leaders. 

"The Irish have long been a thoroughly democratic people. 
Through their chosen .leaders — from O'Connell to Parnell — they 
have provided the world with a model of democratic organization 
in opposition to the domination of the privileged classes. If Ire- 
land, on the grounds of national right and proved ability to main- 
tain a just government, is entitled to recover her sovereign inde- 
pendence — and that is her demand — the recognition of her right is 
due from other nations for the following reasons : 

"1. Because England's claim to withhold independence from 
Ireland is based on a principle which is a negation of national lib- 
erty and subversive of international peace and order. England re- 
sists Ireland's demand on the ground that independence of Ire- 
land would be, as alleged, incompatible with the security of Eng- 
land, or of Great Britain, or of the British Empire. Whether this 
contention is well or ill-founded if it is admitted, then any state 
is justified in suppressing the independence of any nation whose 
liberty that state declares to be incompatible with its own security. 
An endless prospect of future wars is the natural consequence, 

"2. Because England's government of Ireland has been at 
all times, and is conspicuous at the present time, an outrage on the 
conscience of mankind. Such a government, especially in its mod- 
ern quasi-democratic form, is essentially vicious. Its character at 
the best is sufficiently described by a noted English writer, John 
Stuart Mill: 

" 'The government of a people by itself has a meaning and a 
reality, but such a thing as the government of one people by an- 
other does not and cannot exist. One people may keep another 
as a warren or a preserve for its own use, a place to make money 
in, a human cattle farm, to be worked for the profit of its own 
inhabitants, but if the good of the governed is the proper busi- 
ness of a government, it is utterly impossible that a people should 
directly attend to it.' 

"3. Because the English temper toward the cause of Irish 
national liberty produces atrocious and intolerable results in Ire- 
land. Among the results are: A depopulation unexampled in 
any other countr}% howsoever badly governed ; wholesale destruc- 
tion of industries and commerce ; overtaxation on an enormous 
scale; diversion of rents, savings and surplus incomes from Ire- 
land to England ; opposition to the utilization by the Irish people 
of the economic resources of their country and to economic de- 
velopment and social improvement; exploitation of Ireland for the 
benefit of English capitalists; fomentation of religious animosi- 
ties; repression of the national culture; maintenance of a mon- 



214 The Irish Republjc 

strous system of police rule by which, in the words of an English 
minister, all Ireland is kept under the microscope; perversion of 
justice by making political service and political subservience al- 
most the sole qualification for judicial positions, by an elaborate 
corruption of the jury system, by an organization of police espion- 
age, and perjury and the encouragement of agents provocateurs, 
and recently and at present, by using for the purpose of political 
oppression in Ireland the exceptional powers created for the pur- 
poses of the European war. 

"Under these powers military government is established, some 
areas being treated as hostile territory occupied in ordinary war- 
fare ; a war censorship is maintained over the press and over pub- 
lications generally ; printing offices are invaded and dismantled ; 
the police and military are empowered to confiscate the property 
of vendors of literature without any legal process ; persons are im- 
prisoned without trial and deported from Ireland; Irish regiments 
in the English army are removed from Ireland, and a large mili- 
tary force, larger than at any previous time, with full equipment 
for modern warfare, has been maintained in Ireland; civilians are 
daily arrested and tried by court-martial and sentenced to long 
terms of imprisonment. 

"What are England's objections to Ireland's independence? 
The one objection in which English statesmen are sincere is that 
which has been already mentioned — that the domination of Ire- 
land by England is necessary for the security of England. 

"Ireland, according to the English Navy League, is the 'Heli- 
goland of the Atlantic,' a naval outpost to be governed for the sole 
benefit of its foreign masters. This claim, if it is valid, justifies 
not only the suppression of national liberty, but also the weaken- 
ing of Ireland by depopulation, repression of industry and com^- 
merce and culture, maintenance of internal discords, etc. It can 
also be held to justify the subjugation of any small nation by a 
neighboring great power. 

"The proximity of Ireland to England furnishes another plea, 
but Ireland is not as near to England as Belgium, Holland, Den- 
mark, etc., are to Germany, Norway to Sweden, Portugal to Spain. 
In fact, it is this very proximity that makes independence neces- 
sary for Ireland as the only condition of security against the sacri- 
fice of Ireland's right to English interests. 

"A further plea is that England, being a maritime power, her 
safety depending on her navy, and her prosperity depending on 
maritime commerce, the domination of Ireland is for her a prac- 
tical necessity — a plea involving that Ireland's natural harbors, the 
best in Europe, must be kei)t empt}^ of mercantile shipping, ex- 



The Irish Republic 215 

cept for such shipping as carries on the restricted trade between 
Great Britain and Ireland. 

"Ireland cannot admit that the interests of one country, be 
they what they may, can be allowed to annul the natural rights of 
another country. If England's plea be admitted, then there is an 
end to natural rights, and all the world must be prepared to sub- 
mit to armed interests or to make war against them. 

"We may expect also to find the plea insinuated in some spe- 
cious form if not definitely and clearly made, that the English 
rule in Ireland has been and is favorable to the peace, progress and 
civilization of Ireland. We answer that, on the contrary, English 
rule has never been intended for the benefit of Ireland; that it 
has isolated Ireland from Europe, prevented her devlopment, and 
done everything in its power to deprive her of national civiliza- 
tion. So far as Ireland at present is lacking in internal peace; is 
behind other countries in education and material progress ; is un- 
able to contribute notably to the civilization of mankind; these 
defects are the visible consequence of English intrusion and domi- 
nation. 

"The Irish people have never believed in the sincerity of the 
public declarations of English statesmen in regard to their 'war 
aims' except in so far as those declarations avowed England's 
part in the war to have been undertaken for England's particular 
and imperial interests. They have never believed that England 
went to war for the sake of France, Belgium or Serbia, or for 
the protection or liberation of small nationalities, or to make right 
prevail against might. If English statesmen wish to be regarded 
as sincere, they can prove it to the world by abandoning, not in 
words, but in act, the claim to subordinate Ireland's liberty to 
England's security. 

"Ireland's complete liberation must follow upon the applica- 
tion of President Wilson's principles. It has not, resulted from 
verbal acceptance of those principles, and their rejection is im- 
plied in the refusal to recognize for Ireland the right of self- 
determination. 

"If England objects to the application of those principles to 
the settlement of the ancient quarrel between herself and Ire- 
land, she thereby tstifies — 

"(1) That her international policy is entirely based on her 
own selfish interest, not on the recognition of rights in others, not- 
withstanding any professions to the contrary. 

"(2) That, in her future dealings with other nations, she may 
be expected, when the opportunity arises, to use her power to 
make her own interests prevail over their rights. 



216 The Irish Republic 

"(3) That her particular object in keeping possession of Ire- 
land is to secure naval and mercantile domination over the seas, 
and in particular over the North Atlantic and the nations which 
have maritime interests therein, ruling Ireland at the same time 
on a plan of thoroughgoing exploitation for her sole benefit, to 
the great detriment of Ireland, and preventing the establishment 
of beneficial intercourse between Ireland and other countries. 

"It is evident that, while Ireland is denied the right to choose 
freely and establish that form of government which the Irish 
people desire, no international order can be founded on the basis 
of national right and international justice, for the claim of the 
stronger to dominate the weaker will once more be successfully 
asserted, and there will be no true peace. 

"It must be recognized that Ireland has already clearly dem- 
onstrated her will. At the recent general election, out of 105 
constituencies, 73 returned Republican candidates, and six re- 
turned representatives who, though not Republicans, will not op- 
pose the free exercise of self-determination by the Irish people. 
Nor is there the slightest likelihood that this right will at any time 
be relinquished. 

"The Irish people are thoroughly capable of taking immediate 
charge of their national and international affairs, not less capable 
than any of the new states which have been recognized since the 
beginning of the war, or which are about to be recognized, and 
by a procedure not less valid than has been held good for other 
restored or newly established states. They have already formally 
constituted a national government. 

"The effect on the world of the restoration of Ireland to the 
society of free nations cannot fail to be beneficial. On the part 
of the nations in general, the fact will be a guarantee of the new 
international order and a reassurance to all smaller nations. 

"On the part of England, if justice to Ireland be not 'denied 
or sold or delayed,' that fact will be an earnest to other peoples, 
especially to those whose commerce is borne on the Atlantic 
Ocean, that England's naval power is not hostile to the rights 
and legitimate interests of other countries. 

"Ireland's voice in the councils of the nations will be wholly 
in favor of peace and justice. Ireland covets no possessions and 
makes no territorial claims outside of her own well-defined geo- 
graphical bounds. Her liberty cannot infringe on that of any 
other people. She will not make any war of aggression or favor 
any. The prosperity to which, in remembrance of her un- 
exampled progress during a brief period of legislative, but not 
executive independence (1782-1789). she looks forward, confid- 



The Irish Republic 217 

ly, will contribute to the prosperity of all countries in commercial 
relations with her. 

"The longest agony suffered by any people in history will be 
ended, the oldest standing enmity between two peoples will be 
removed. England will be relieved of the disgrace she bears in 
the eyes of all peoples, a disgrace not less evident to the remote 
Armenian than to her nearest continental neighbors. 

"In proportion as England gives earnest of disinterestedness 
and good will, in like proportion shall Ireland show her readiness 
to join in with England in allowing the past to pass into history. 
The international ambition of Ireland will be to recreate in some 
new way that period of her ancient independence which she is 
proudest of, when she gave freely of her greatest treasures to 
every nation within her reach and entertained no thought of selfish 
advantage." 



If it be indeed and in truth the common object of the 
governments associated against Germany and of the nations 
whom they govern, as I believe it to be, to achieve by the 
coming settlements a secure and lasting peace, it will be 
necessary that all who sit down at the peace table come ready 
and willing to pay the price, the only price, that will procure 
it ; and ready and willing, also, to create in some virile fashion 
the only instrumentality by which it can be made certain that 
the agreements of the peace will be honored and fulfilled. 
That price is impartial justice in cz'ery item of the settlement, 
no matter whose interest is crossed; and not only impartial 
justice but also the satisfaction of the several peoples whose 
fortunes are dealt with. That indispensable instrumentality 
is a League of Nations formed under covenants that will be 
efficacious. 

— [Fro}n President Wilson's Fourth Liberty Loan Address.] 



218 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

WHY IRELAND IS A WORLD PROBLEM. 

MY Protestant friends say to me : "Why don't you let up on 
this Irish palaver and think of the United States once in 
a while?" 

It is because I am thinking of the United States first that I 
must think of Ireland before any other class of our people. The 
Irish question particularly is an x'Xmerican question first, and then 
a world question. 

I am following a distinguished precedent, the one laid down 
by the President of the United States. He not only turned his 
thoughts to all the ethnic strains in Europe — except Ireland — and 
announced the solemn obligation of this country to play the role 
of Big Brother to the world, but he, for the first time in our 
history, left the country as the President of the United States, 
went to Europe and insisted on settling up the state aiTairs of 
innumerable small nations on that continent. He did that and 
he named his boat the "George Washington," not by way of irony 
(remembering Washington's injunction to keep away from Euro- 
pean alliances and entanglements) but no doubt because he felt 
sincerely that the United States was to continue to save the world 
in times of peace and that the name of Washington was some- 
thing more than sentiment — it typified the soul of the Republic. 

Btit here is what confuses me. Why is it right to try to 
bring peace to Korea, to Syria, to Armenia, to Jugo-Slavia, to 
Czecho-Slovakia, to Esthonia and Finland and the Ukraine and 
all the rest, and ignore just one people — Ireland? Why is it per- 
fectly proper for Julius Rosenwald to interest himself in the suf- 
fering Jews of Europe and all wrong, even un-American, as my 
Protestant associates declaim, to speak a word of sympathy for 
Ireland? Why is it an act of great worthiness for John Smulski 
to appeal to the United States to help Poland secure her autonomy 
and for supplies from the United States to maintain the popula- 
tion under the terrible aftermath of the devastating war, and all 
wrong, even un-American, to suggest that we might extend a 
helping hand, if no more than sympathy, to Ireland? The heart 
of the nation is with Rosenwald and Smulski. It is right that it 
should be. Why is it cold when Ireland is mentioned? 

Why is it that we are privileged, by some occult rule, to ex- 
press our warmest sympathies with all other peoples in Europe but 
are stopped short when it comes to Ireland? We may not even 



The Irish Republic 219 

mention the name ! And we have more people of Irish descent 
in the United States, more true-blue, loyal and patriotic citizens 
of that ethnic strain than any other. It is particularly true of 
the Irishman in the United States that he is first for the United 
States, and has been in every war that this country has been en- 
gaged in. For the United States he fought in France, even though 
by so fighting he was aiding one nation in the world — England — 
that he has no sympathy for at all. 

We need not recite the history of the United States, from the 
days of Bunker Hill to now. The average person is familiar with 
that history and the part Irishmen have played in it. A com- 
mission from King George's parliament inquired into the trouble 
with the colonies and they reported back to that parliament that 
the war of independence in the United States was a war of Irish- 
men, driven out of Ireland, on England. 

But why is Ireland a world question? For these reasons: 

After the fall of the Roman Empire men from Ireland picked 
up and saved the tangled skeins of civilization, such as it was, for 
the following five hundred years. Ireland was the one country on 
the outposts of the Atlantic which was not touched by the migra- 
tions of the nations in those dark ages. It sent its learned men 
back into the darkness to bear the light of Christianity, to keep 
the faith, and literally carried out the injunction to go into all 
parts of the world, even the furthermost parts. In those dark 
ages Ireland was the one seat of learning in the world. 

The two great apostles of the Irish mission were Columcille 
in Great Britain and Columbanus in Europe. Mrs. Green states 
that in all Irish history there is no greater figure than St. Colum- 
cille — statesman and patriot, poet, scholar and saint. He did for 
pagan England in those dark years what St. Patrick had done 
for Ireland. He established schools of learning, carried the bea- 
con light of Christianity and implanted classical learning in what 
was then a pagan realm — England. He was, says Mrs. Green, the 
"greatest missionary that Ireland ever sent out to proclaim the 
gathering of peoples in free associations through the power of 
human brotherhood, learning and religion." 

As we proceed from here it is to be kept in mind that wher- 
ever the Irish scholars and monks went they not only established 
monasteries and schools — they laid down the principle of the 
brotherhood of man, of human liberty, of the right of peoples 
to choose their own way of life and obedience, provided that 
way was based on the Christian and not the pagan philosophy. 
That trait seems especially to be the rock bottom of Irish char- 
acter. W^hether monk or teacher or warrior, whether in the 



220 The Irish REruBLic 

sixth century or the twentieth century, the men from Ireland 
have in them what was born in them at the beginning of the world 
— the love of human liberty. 

"They taught the English writing," proceeds Mrs. Green, "and 
gave them the letters which were used among them till the Nor- 
man conquest. Labour and learning went hand in hand. From 
the king's court nobles came, rejoicing to change the brutalities of 
war for the plough, the forge-hammer, the winnowing fan. Waste 
places were reclaimed, the ports were crowded with boats, and 
monasteries gave shelter to travelers. In 662 there was only 
one bishop in the whole of England who was not of Irish con- 
secration, and this bishop, Agilberct of Wessex, was a Frenchman 
who had been trained for years in Ireland." 

The old doggerel about Ireland being a nation when England 
was a diminutive canine is historically true. Irish nationality and 
nationhood antedate England by centuries. 

Columbanus left Ireland for the continent about 575, sailing 
out of Belfast Lough. He was accompanied by twelve Irish 
monks. They crossed Gaul, partly by way of the Loire, and first 
stopped to found their great school at Luxeuil in the Vosges. 
Others of his entourage were sent across France and Switzerland, 
founding schools and carrying the message of the brotherhood of 
man. He himself laid the foundation of the monastery of Bobio 
in the Apennines where he closed his earthly career in 615. Colum- 
banus was a profound scholar, and when he left Ireland he took 
with him a knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, according to 
the annals, and was a man of fine taste and no living being ex- 
celled him in rhetoric, geometry and poetry. 

Following his death Ireland continued to send to the uttermost 
parts of the earth her teachers and kept up -fhis flood of learning 
for four hundred years without ceasing, battling the pagan tribes 
and leading them from paganism to the light of the Gallileean, 
whose teachings, first of all, were founded on brotherhood, and 
not on caste. 

These missionaries followed the Rhine into Switzerland, and 
by way of the Elbe and the Danube they reached Old Saxony, 
Thuringia, Bavaria, Salzburg and Carinthia. They crossed the 
Alps into Italy, reaching Lucca, Fiesole, Rome, Naples and Tar- 
entum. They pushed on to Jerusalem and Egypt, founding a 
school in ancient Carthage. 

It has been asserted that in the seventh and eighth centuries 
there was not a teacher of Greek in western Europe who was not 
an Irishman or who had not been taught by an Irishman. Charles 
the Great put Irishmen from Ireland at the heads of all the cele- 




SCENE IN HOUSE OF COMMONS WHEN JOHN DILLON WAS EXPELLED 
FROM THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, 1902. 



The Irish Republic 221 

brated schools of Europe. Whether he was monk or tutor, these 
Irish of the dark ages planted the seeds of what were to grow into 
national aspirations, even self-government, in every known land. 

Beginning with the seventeenth century English greed, ruth- 
lessness and stupidity further dispersed over the world the teach- 
ers from Ireland. In confiscating the Irish lands and driving 
the natives from their homes, England sent other streams of pa- 
triots across Europe, teaching of the Christ but also teaching 
the wrongs of England. King James had stolen Ulster and 
planted the "foreigner" there. Cromwell had come upon the 
scene, with a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other, chop- 
ping off the heads of the children, since, as he said, "nits will 
be lice." Elis soldiers amused themselves by throwing little chil- 
dren in the air and catching them on pike poles as they came 
down. They did it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth! Then 
consigned those that survived "to hell or Connaught." 

Twenty thousand Irish fled from their homes and reached a 
haven in the West Indies, there to plant the seeds of hatred of 
England. Historians estimate that fully 30,000 were seeking a 
place to lay their heads in Europe, while another 4,000 had gone 
to Flanders to fight in the wars. Many distinguished scholars, 
driven from their own institutions in Ireland, hastened to the 
Irish schools established by the missionaries in Europe. 

"They became," records Mrs. Green, "chancellors of uni- 
versities, professors, high officials in every European state — a 
Kerry man physician to the king of Poland ; another Kerry man 
confessor to the queen of Portugal and sent by the king on an 
embassy to Louis XIV ; a Donegal man, O'Glacan, physician and 
privy councillor to the king of France, and a very famed pro- 
fessor of medicine in the universities of Toulouse and Bologna 
(1646-1655). We may ask, whether in the history of the world 
there was sent out of any country such genius, learning and in- 
dustry as the English flung, as it were, into the sea. With every 
year the number of exiles grew. 'The same to me,' wrote one, 
'are the mountain or ocean, Ireland or the west of Spain ; I have 
shut and made fast the gates of sorrow over my heart.' " 

There was bitter resentment of the Germans when they bom- 
barded and burned Louvain on their march across Belgium in 
the fall of 1914. I saw Louvain after that terrible conflagration 
that pained the heart of the great cardinal (Mercier) so poig- 
nantly. It was there he had built up his school and his renowned 
class in philosophy. 

And what names, would you suppose, are among the most 
revered in Louvain, even to this day? Listen: The O'Neills, 



222 The Irish Republic 

the O'Dohertys, the O'Donnells, the Lynches, the Murphys and 
scores of other names that were bred in Ireland. Here, in the 
early part of the seventeenth century and on through the century, 
gathered the exiles from Erin, the teachers, at the Franciscan 
College of St. Anthony of Padua. In the monastery of the Freres 
de Charite are today relics of that band of exiles. 

"Here I break olT till morning," wrote one, "and I in gloom 
and grief; and during my life's length unless only that I might 
have one look at Ireland." 

That was their burden through the centuries in every spot in 
Europe, in Asia, in Eygpt, the burden of the exiles from Erin 
whom England had thrust out of their native huts ; longing for 
just one look of the old land before death overtook them. We 
can understand, by familiarizing ourselves with the real Irish 
history, why Irishmen today in the United States have that won- 
derful affection for the old land, even those Irishmen who never 
saw it. It is bone of their bone and blood of their blood. 

We have in one of the public parks of Chicago a statue of 
Havlicek, the Czech patriot. It is often covered with floral 
wreaths — the love of the children of Bohemia who still honor a 
patriot. Well, Havlicek spent about as much of his life in the 
Hapsburgs' jails as De Valera has in his majesty's gaols. And, 
finally, Havlicek hit upon a clever scheme. Instead of assail- 
ing the Hapsburgs he would tell his people the story of Ireland — 
how Ireland was being oppressed and her national spirit crushed 
beneath the tyrant's heel. He drew the analogy so vividly that 
his people knew he was telling them their own story. 

We think we have an Irish problem in the United States. We 
have. But it is only about a hundred and fifty years old. In 
every country in Europe they have had the Irish inspiration since 
the beginning of the sixth century. Ireland and Irish genius 
mean much to the nations of western Europe. Irish are not 
spoken of in those countries as the "professional" or the "wild 
Irish." The name of Hibernia is pronounced in a spirit of es- 
teem and great respect. The scholarship of Europe springs from 
the monks of Ireland and has its roots in the very dark ages of 
the world's history when there were no other scholars left in the 
world to preserve the link between Jesus Christ and His Apostles 
and the modern world. And wherever an Irish exile set foot, 
even in India and Africa, after 1170, he told the story, not wrath- 
fully but in anguish, of the sorrow of his dear land whence he 
had been cast out by the English. In later years they took up 
the sword for human freedom for every people, and with the 
greatest gusto and enthusiasm when that sword was raised against 



The Irish Republic 223 

England. 

Germany for fifty years endeavored by the most intense scien- 
tific efficiency to make Alsace-Lorraine German, and with what 
success we have seen. England has endeavored for seven hundred 
and fifty years to make Ireland English, and has failed more 
ignominiously than did the royal cousin of Potsdam in his French 
provinces. It is the ride of a nation by a nation that virile men 
and men of lofty moral courage of the Irish type resent, and it 
matters not whether the one grandson of Victoria attempts the 
immoral scheme in Strasbourg or her other grandson persists in 
it in Dublin. 

Ireland's indictment of England is of more than seven hundred 
years' standing. It is not of recent birth. And there are 20,000,000 
of them in the United States ! One-fifth of our population ! 

It is not a question of whether we like the Irish, of whether 
we look upon the Catholic with brutal bigotry, or whether we 
have no personal concern as to what may happen to them or their 
island. It is a vital question for every student who wants peace to 
come to the human family the world over. We are facing the tidal 
wave of bitter feeling that has been rolling up across the centuries, 
a tidal wave that is affecting seriously many great nations of the 
earth. It is of vital moment to our peace of mind in the United 
States with respect to removing from our politics and our domes- 
tic problems a confusion that can be removed in a night. How? 
Free Ireland ! 

England owes that much to the peace of the world. She owes 
that much to the United States if she would bring to her future 
well being with a turn of the hand the good will and sympathetic 
understanding of all the people of the United States, including the 
Irish. 

I, for one, will wipe out all the resentment toward England 
that was born in me if she will do that much. The pride of an- 
cestry shall not prevail against my forbearance. Perhaps for me 
she will not do it. "I" do not count. She might, though, do it 
for millions of us. 

Who can tell.^ 



224 The Irish Republic 



And the kings of the earth, and the great men, 
and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the 
mighty men, and every bondman, and every free 
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks 
of the mountains ; and said to the mountains and 
rocks: Fall on us, and hide us from the face of 
Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath 
of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is 
come; and who shall be able to stand f 



225 



APPENDIX A. 

Ireland's economic resources and her part in American 
history and the world war. 

Ireland's revenue last year (1918) was approximately $150,- 
000,000, of which $100,000,000 was an excess tax for the main- 
tenance of the British war organization. 

The 1918 revenue was $55,000,000 greater than that of Hol- 
land, nine times greater than that of Switzerland, and equaled 
the combined revenues of Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and 
Greece. All of these countries maintain an army, some a fleet 
as well, a diplomatic and consular service throughout the world, 
and a government by men of their own race. 

Ireland's $150,000,000 imperial taxation was used in paying 
the cost of the rule of Ireland by Englishmen and in helping to 
maintain England's imperial exchequer in the promotion of a war 
to bring other small nations a democracy. 

Ireland is three times as large as Belgium, two and one-half 
times the size of Holland, and more fertile than either. 

Spain, with twenty-five per cent more revenue than Ireland, 
maintains a fleet and army, and administers the affairs of a popu- 
lation four times greater than that of Ireland. 

Within the last 100 years Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Bul- 
garia, Serbia, Roumania, Montenegro, Italy, Norway, most of 
the continent of South America, Cuba, Finland, the Ukraine and 
others ethnic strains have thrown off the alien governments and 
regained their national autonomy. 

In the majority of these cases the financial resources and the 
ability to maintain the respective independent governments were 
vastly inferior to Ireland's. 

Under normal conditions England's trade with Ireland is 
second only to her trade with the United States, aggregating about 
$850,000,000 annually. About 97 per cent of Ireland's foreign 
commerce is with England. 

By cleverly devised regulations and administrative enactments 
England has shut off Ireland from direct connections with foreign 
countries. This prevention of free trading between Ireland and 
foreign countries works a hardship on both Ireland and the 
countries with which she might engage in a profitable exchange of 
commodities. 

Practically all American commercial relations with Ireland are 



226 Appendix A 

conducted by English middlemen. This system handicaps the 
sale of Irish goods in America and American goods in Ireland, 
adding to the cost to the ultimate consumer, and gives English- 
made goods an advantage over American manufacture. 

In 1845 Ireland's population was between 8,000,000 and 
9,000,000. Today it is a little over 4,000,000, chargeable to the 
rule of the "alien." 

In 1894 a royal commission was appointed to consider the 
question of Ireland's taxation. On this commission were such 
experts as Lord Farrer. Lord Welby, Sir B. Currie, Sir D. Bar- 
bour and Sir R. Hamilton, and several Irish Nationalists and 
Unionists. In 1896 the commission reported that Ireland, since 
1853, was annually overtaxed $10,000,000, which ratio, if 
extended to 1917, would aggregate $640,000,000. 

Up to the coming of the French it was estimated that there 
were one hundred Irish soldiers to one of any other nation in 
George Washington's army, and at the crisis of the struggle for 
independence fifty per cent of the army was Irish. 

Nine of the signers of the American Declaration of Independ- 
ence were Irish. 

An Irishman named Charles Thomson, born in Derry, Ire- 
land, was secretary of the Continental Congress and wrote the 
first copy of the Declaration of Independence from the draft 
made by Thomas Jefiferson. 

An Irishman named John Dunlap, a native of the County 
Tyrone, Ireland, was the first printer and publisher of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

Archbishop Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, the son of an 
Irishman and cousin of one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, drew up that section of the American Constitution 
which assures religious liberty to all denominations. 

The first naval battle in the American Revolution was won by 
five sons of Matthew O'Brien who was a native of Cork, Ireland. 

Commodore John Barry, father of the American navy, who 
commanded the Lexington, the first war vessel that sailed from 
Philadelphia and later bore the American flag to victory, was 
born in County Wexford, Ireland. 

Joseph Reed, the son of an Irishman, was the first aide-de- 
camp appointed by George Washington. 

An anti-recruiting society, known as the "White Boys," was 
organized in Ireland for the purpose of preventing enlistments 
in his majesty's regiments for service against the American colon- 
ists, and during the war American privateers were welcomed in 
Irish ports by the sympathizers with the colonists and were sup- 



Appendix A 227 

plied with provisions and information as to the whereabouts of 
the Enghsh ships. 

The first woman to fight for American liberty and the first of 
her sex to receive a pension from the United States government 
for services in the war of the revolution was Margaret Cochran, 
an Irish woman born in Ireland. 

The son of an Irishman, Robert Fulton, designed and built the 
first steamboat. 

An Irishman born in Cork, Ireland, named Christopher Colles, 
was the first man to propose the linking of the Great Lakes with 
the Atlantic ocean, and the project was carried out under the 
direction of Governor DeWitt Clinton, the grandson of an Irish- 
man. 

An Irishman named Henry O'Reilly built the first telegraph 
line in America. 

An Irish woman named Mary Healy was the first female 
school teacher in New England, and perhaps the first in America. 

The American army sent to France in the world war was up- 
wards of one-third Irish and of Irish descent. 

Captain Thomas F. McMahon of the Irish Guards, an Oxford 
man, on recruiting duty with the British and Canadian recruiting 
mission in the United States, on October 5, 1917, gave out the 
following interview : 

"It's a pity some of you American newspaper men were not 
with the forces in the first couple of years of the war," he said. 
"I mean, close up, where you could get the stories first hand, and 
not after they had filtered through. There would be something 
worth writing about. 

"Now, mind you, I am not making comparisons, for all our 
troops fought with the greatest spirit — Scotch, English, Welch 
and Dominion forces. But somehow or other it seemed that little 
attention was paid to the Irish ; and undoubtedly it is due to this 
fact, and to the ignorance of the whole Irish question by the 
papers here, supplemented by cables from across that are often 
based upon imagining of the writers, that today our race is placed 
in a doubtful position. 

"But what I am getting at is the apparent feeling that because 
conscription was held up for Ireland so many people here seem 
to think we have done nothing. The issue has been clouded here. 
If you were to read the big papers at home you would see that 
there was a considerable antagonism against the plan among the 
big men in England in the Commons and the Lords ; that it was 
not Ireland alone that objected. 

"Never mind that. Just consider the fighting facts. Take the 



228 Appendix A 

Irish Guards. I'm not boasting because it is my unit, but we 
have won more honors than any other regiment fighting under 
the EngUsh Hag, except the Royal Irish and the Royal Welsh 
Fusiliers. And when I left home out of 1,100 of us, officers and 
men, there remained less than a dozen who were still on the list 
of effectives. And other Irish regiments have suffered about as 
badly. 

"In one sector 16 officers and 597 men were lost by the Irish 
Guards in fighting for some 200 yards of ground. Of one battalion 
but 47 answered roll-call. When the Germans swooped down 
on the Gordon Highlands and there were left but 170 of them, 
with annihilation starting them, the Connaught Rangers came up 
and turned the tide. 

"Against 2,000 Germans the 800 Connaught and 170 Gordons 
slashed forward, and when the battle ended 470 Germans were 
wiped out and 70 more were prisoners. Later on, in a charge 
against the German entrenched positions, a battalion of the Mun- 
sters were the only ones to storm the trenches, and out of 800 
that went over the top across 800 yards of open plain against a 
murderous fire but 200 men and three officers survived. 

"In one engagement the Liverpool Irish took a trench, and 
then aiding the French, took three miles of the Hun lines. At 
Festubert the 2d Inniskillings by a daring attack made it possible 
for the whole division to sweep on and win where another division 
had been defeated. 

"It would take a whole page to tell the Dardanelles and Galli- 
poli story, that cost the 10th Irish Division more than a third of 
its forces. Just imagine trying to land on Revere Beach, not 
realizing that the water had been covered with barbed wire 
attached to hundreds of mines. 

"And the landing place only a narrow strip with hills rising 
above, having concealed many machine guns, field pieces, rifle- 
men, etc., and topped by a fort, all within a stone's throw of the 
invaders. The Dublins and Munsters were sent to land against 
the strongest position. 

"The Dublins, who started ashore in boats, were wiped out 
wholesale, as they neared the beach, from bullets and contact 
mines. It was pitiful to see the boats, battered and torn from 
the hail of lead, with the men mangled in heaps so the little craft 
drifted unmanageable with the fide past other ships, survivors 
told me. 

"Only a few of the Dublins got ashore. Then the Munsters 
were ordered to get ready to take their turn. They saw all this, 
a lot of young kids making their first venture into warfare. Out 



Appendix A 229 

of the sides of a troopship they flowed onto hghters and pontoons, 
where the Turks had exact range. 

"Two out of every three toppled over killed or wounded, but 
they kept on getting into the water and making the landing. It 
was murderous, but they did it, though some 700 of the 7,000 
Munsters were killed, wounded or drowned. At night others 
landed without losing a man. 

"The Irish were not through yet. After all the pounding they 
got there the 10th Division was sent to aid the Serbian Army. 
Gen. Sarrail, the man who beat the Crown Prince at Verdun, said 
the Irish performed in the Serbian mountain passes one of the 
most striking feats of the whole war. 

"Fighting a rear guard action against an enemy of 10 to 1 
they stopped the onslaught so successfully that the entire French 
and British forces escaped without losing a wagon or a gun. 

"It was in that retreat that the 2d Munsters were lost. They 
had fought gloriously all along, saving the guns of a battery by 
taking the places of horses, bringing the pieces back five miles. 
Acting as rear guard to the First Army Corps, they held a couple 
of crossroads. 

"When the ammunition ran out they fought with their bayo- 
nets, but one regiment could not defeat seven battalions of infan- 
try, three batteries of artillery, some squadrons of cavalry and 
the machine gun units. Yet that is what the Munsters faced, and 
held long enough to let the First Corps get safely away. Four 
officers and 256 men were lost. 

"The story of how the London Irish played football across No 
Man's Land in the advance upon Loos is one of the wonderful 
stories of the big war. 

"For two days the London Irish resisted terrific counter 
charges and held fast till relieved. The general in command ad- 
dressed the remnant of them on their return, telling them their 
fight was one of the grandest in the war, and it had heli)ed save 
an entire army corps. 

"Guillemont and Guinchy are two names added to the stand- 
ards of the Irish regiments of both North and South. The first 
place was captured against heavy odds. Then there was a lull 
for a few days. 

"Guinchy was believed by the Germans to be too strong to be 
captured. But battalions from all the Irish regiments were put 
into action and the result was victory once more. Yet the cost 
was high for the Irish. 

"It was merely history repeating itself there, for a year before, 
when the Germans had taken Guinchv from the Coldstreams our 



230 Appendix A 

men from the Irish Guards recaptured it. The Coldstreams had 
made a brave attempt to retake it, but they were forced back. 
So the Irish Guards swept through them and wiped the Germans 
out. That was the time Mike O'Leary won his V. C. O'Leary 
had been promoted a major the last I heard from him. 

"One could go on and tell a lot more stories like those named, 
which were episodes of the first couple of years. For example 
of how the Irish are mixed into other regiments. One finds a 
number of such men winning honors for units outside Ireland. 
Here are some Victoria Cross men : 

"Kenny of the Gordon Highlands is a Drogheda man. Toombs 
of a Liverpool regiment is a Down man. Caffrey of the Lan-' 
casters, Dwyer of the Surreys, Rochfort of the Scots Guards, 
Dease, City of London Regiment, the first officer to win a cross in 
the war; Moutray-Read of the Northamptonshires ; Wheeler, 7th 
Hariana Lancers; Butler, Gold Coast Regiment, Africa; Brooke, 
another Gordon Highland ; Hogan of the Manchesters, Kennealy 
of the Lancashires, Lynn of the same regiment, all Irishmen, won 
their honors in the early days, and their ranks have been increased 
large since. 

"Whole armies have been saved by Irish troops. The officers 
of all ranks in all armies will tell you of forlorn hopes being 
turned into victory and of impregnable places captured. 

"When the war began Ireland sent into the fighting zone some 
fifteen distinctively Irish regiments from all four provinces. And 
as the war developed there were the London Irish, Liverpool Irish 
and Tyneside Irish. And in the Scotch, Welsh and English regi- 
ments were many more Irishmen. 

"Then there came from overseas some regiments like the Van- 
couver Irish Fusiliers, the Quebec Irish, a South African Irish 
regiment, and from Australia came others — some fifty per cent 
of the men from there being of that race. And we had thousands 
in the navy. 

"We raised the 10th, the 16th and the 36th Irish Divisions, 
and we sent thousands across to keep up the strength of our units. 
Yet a few days ago I read in a paper here that Ireland had con- 
tributed but ten per cent of soldiers, while Scotland and other 
places had contributed forty per cent. 

"Official figures available show that up to January last Erin 
had contributed 58.1 per cent of her available man power. Now 
these figures mean only the men who were listed following a mili- 
tary census. It does not include the men who were in the Eng- 
lish army and navy when the war broke out. 

"Nor does it include those Irishmen working in Britain who 



Appendix A 231 

swelled the ranks of the units across the Channel, men who, if 
at home, would have gone into Irish regiments. And they were all 
volunteers. Thousands have enlisted since the Dublin uprising. 

"The battle of Ypres has gone into history, and because of 
their dash and daring two Irish battalions were practically wiped 
out. They were the 2d Leinsters and the Royal Irish. The Lein- 
sters held out a day and a half until French troops saved them, 
but the Royal Irish were cut otT and all but a few were killed or 
captured. 

"Admittedly, the Irish have not been surpassed in fighting on 
any battle front, and at times they performed the supposedly im- 
possible, such as the Suvla Bay landing, w4iere Vonder Golz, the 
German genius, had constructed what he and other prominent 
officers claimed was an impregnable position, a veritable death 
trap for attackers. And, remember, the Turks are brave fighters. 

"But they (the Irish) have no official shouters proclaiming 
their deeds from the housetops, nor authors enshrining their valor 
in words. In fact, the dispatches from Gallipoli telling of the 
work of the Irish division could be put in two inches of type in 
your paper. 

"So it is time we said a few things about ourselves. 

"If you knew what the men who have been through the battles 
believe — officers of all ranks in all armies — who know of forlorn 
hopes turning the tide to victory, of impregnable places captured, 
of divisions — yes, whole armies, being saved by Irish troops, you 
would have a ready answer to those who seem to think that we 
have done little, and are doing nothing now. 

"W'e are doing our fighting in the present big push. We need 
no apologies, no defense. Our standards tell the story." 

Lindsay Crawford, formerly of Ulster, one of the founders 
of the Indeitendent Orangemen of Ulster, in his St. Patrick day 
address at Toronto, Canada, 1917, said: 

"We are asking nothing from England. Nothing from British 
statesmen that is not ours. 

"We are simply asking them to restore the title deeds of our 
nation, to restore to our country the liberty they wrested from 
her, to restore to our country her parliamentary rights. 

"Irishmen ask England for nothing theirs — the right to live as 
a free people, the right to mould their own destiny, the right to 
raise their own taxes, the right to educate their own children, 
the right to make that country Irish from top to bottom. 

"If Ireland be left to the mercy of her oppressor, while the 
Poles, Czechs, Slavs, Finns, Belgians and Serbians are guaran- 



232 Appendix A 

teed their liberty, the ideals of America as expressed by President 
Wilson remani unfulfilled and the world will not be 'made safe 
for Democracy.' Until the adult population of Ireland is granted 
self-determination in the freest and fullest manner, and the desires 
of her people guaranteed by a League of Nations, there can be 
no peace in the world." 



233 



APPENDIX B 

SKETCH OF DE VALERa's LIFE. 

EAMONN DE VALERA'S father was Vivian De Valera, a 
direct descendant from the lexicographer to King Ferdinand 
and Queen Isabella. Perhaps the ancestor may have importuned 
the royal pair in behalf of Columbus. Eamonn's father was of 
a romantic turn of mind and loved the sea. He came to the 
shores of Ireland and there met, wooed and wed Kate Coll of 
Limerick. They came to America where Eamonn was born. His 
father died when he was two and one-half years old, and he was 
sent back to his mother's people in Limerick where he was reared 
and educated. He married Miss S. O'Flannigan, an accomplished 
Gaelic student and who first imparted to him the patriotism and 
inspiration of the ancient language. They have six children. The 
residence is at Greystones, Ireland, a subtirb of Dublin. 

The following intimate sketch of De Valera's boyhood and 
his participation in the Easter insurrection is furnished by Harry 
j. Boland, the youth who engineered De Valera's escape from 
Lincoln prison in England and who now is his private secretary : 

Eamonn De Valera, president of the Irish Republic, is in his 
native city. He is here as the direct representative of the people 
of Ireland to the people of America. He is the elected president 
of the elected government of the Irish nation which has deliber- 
ately determined itself as a Repviblic. He was chosen by adult 
suffrage, through the peaceful, democratic machinery of the bal- 
lot. Nominated by no small group of special interests, nor yet 
self-appointed, De Valera was freely chosen by a three to one 
majority of the Irish people, as the duly accredited spokesman of 
the Irish nation. He is therefore entitled to speak for Ireland, 
with an authority, from the standpoint of democracy, equal to 
that of the President of the United States, or of the Premier of 
France or of Great Britain. 

President De Valera has undertaken this journey at the re- 
quest of his government. His presence is intended to mark, in 
a conspicuous manner, the esteem in which the Irish people hold 
the people of America, His personal connection with this coun- 
try, coupled with his well known affection for it, in addition to his 
qualifications as a statesman, make him a suitable Ambassador. 

The visit of the President of the Irish Republic to America at 



234 Appendix B 

this time is fraught with grave importance. He comes with a 
plan of reconstruction for Ireland, and will endeavor to interest 
American industries in the broad field of Irish commerce. He 
will float in America a bond issue of the Irish Republic, that will 
start that new Republic on a financial plane equalled by few and 
excelled by none. He will appeal to official America to stand 
by the Irish Republic and recognize it before the world. 

He was educated at Bruroe, Charleville, and the French Col- 
lege, Blackrock, County Dublin, in both the intermediate and 
university departments. Later he attended lectures at the Nation- 
al University, and at Trinity College, Dublin. Distinguished as a 
student in his younger days, as he is today as a statesman, Eamonn 
De Valera, at every stage of his college career, won scholarships, 
prizes and degrees in arts, science and pedagogy. 

He taught the special honors courses in mathematical science, 
pure and applied, in the principal Dublin university colleges for 
men and women, to students of the late Royal University of Ire- 
land, at Blackrock, St. Stephen's Green, Eccles Street, Loretto, 
and later was lecturer in these courses at Maynooth College. I^or 
ten years he was professor at the National Training College for 
primary teachers, and was mathematical examiner for the inter- 
mediate and National University and examiner in Irish for the 
Royal College of Surgeons. When the Easter Week insurrection 
took place in 1916, De Valera was engaged in reasearch work 
in quaternion analysis (a powerful space calcalus, the inven- 
tion of an Irishman, Sir William Rowan Hamilton, of Trinity 
College) under the directorship of Dr. Conway, N. U. I., at the 
National University. 

It is safe to say that there is no man of his age in Ireland 
today who has had such an extensive experience in educational 
affairs. He was placed first with the late Professor Harper for 
the chair of mathematical physics by the governing body of the 
University College, Cork, and has testimonials from some of the 
most distinguished mathematicians in Europe. Early in the move- 
ment to revive the ancient language of Ireland, De Valera mas- 
tered the language, teaching in many of the colleges that had been 
established by the Gaelic League. 

During the insurrection of Easter Week, 1916, President De 
Valera was given the "Ringsend" — Mount Street area, Dublin — ■ 
to hold with his battalion. Here, with little more than one hun- 
dred men, he withstood the entire force of the two divisions of 
the English army, which marched with artillery on the city of 
Dublin, from Kingstown. His main position was still unshaken 
when he received the order of his commander-in-chief, Padraic 



Appendix B 22^5 

Pearse, to surrender. 

In his report of that insurrection, the British general stated 
that in this area the British casuahies were far higher than in 
any other, while the records show that De Valera's casualties 
were very slight. British ofificials spoke in the highest terms of 
the excellence of his tactics, and those who were taken prisoners 
by him testified to the chivalrous courtesy and kindness with 
which he treated them. 

When he surrendered, De Valera was tried by court martial 
and sentenced to be shot, but owing to the flaming tide of public 
indignation which had arisen against the execution, in America 
as well as in Ireland, and because of the several official protests 
of American senators and congressmen who were particularly 
interested in his case, on account of his American birth, the sen- 
tence was commuted to penal servitude for life. He was the 
only one of that heroic band of Dublin commandments to escape 
execution, and was included in the first batch of political prisoners 
that were sent to the convict prison at Dartmoor. There he was 
joined, a few days later, by groups of patriots from all over Ire- 
land, to the number of sixty-five. 

The English convict system is very severe, and a vigorous dis- 
cipline is always maintained. Absolute silence is the unalterable 
rule. Prisoners are searched four times each day, are locked in 
their cells twenty-three out of every twenty-four hours. During 
one hour of exercise allowed a prisoner each day the men are com- 
pelled to march five paces apart, eyes front. To smile is an of- 
fense ; to speak, unpardonable. When a prisoner wants to see the 
governor of the jail, or the doctor, he must stand with his nose 
to the wall, until such time as that "dignitary" chooses to put in 
an appearance. Such were the conditions that confronted the 
Irish patriots when they reached the prisons of England. 

President De Valera and his fellow patriots stood this for 
just six weeks, when Professor Eoin McNeill of the National 
University, Dublin, arrived to serve a life sentence. McNeill was 
the last of the band to arrive. He had been Commander-in-Chief 
of the Irish Volunteers, but, it will be remembered, took no part 
in the insurrection. 

With McNeill in the prison the Irish Volunteers were com- 
plete. He had arrived during the night, and made his first appear- 
ance at the morning parade the following day. Eamonn De Val- 
era, as senior officer, recognizing the former Commander-in-Chief 
in the line, called his fellow prisoners to the salute : 

"Irish Volunteers! Attention! Eyes Left!" 

The wardens of the jail were dumbfounded. They were made 



236 Appendix B 

to realize that the convict tunics had not dimmed the old spirit 
of defiance, and that the men with whom they had to deal were 
neither murderers, forgers, nor criminals. They were soldiers ! 

A few days later De Valera was ordered punished for passing 
a loaf of bread to a comrade who was being starved. The punish- 
ment meted out to him for this dire offense was the most humili- 
ating in the prison category — that of picking oakum, a coarse, hard 
rope which the prisoner picks into fine strands. This De Valera 
refused to do, on the ground that it was not work, but degradation. 
Then, being charged with refusal to work, he went on a hunger 
strike until the charge was withdrawn. 

Finally, De Valera was removed from Dartmoor prison and 
transferred to Maidstone convict prison, where he was herded 
with the criminals of England and separated from his fellow 
Irish prisoners. Here he fought for the rights of prisoners-of- 
war. In the meantime the Irish people were protesting vigor- 
ously against the treatment the English government was giving the 
Irish prisoners. The claim was made that in the insurrection the 
insurrectionists had obeyed all the rules of modern warfare, even 
British officers bearing the tribute to the cleanness of the fight. 

When De Valera demanded the rights of prisoners-of-war for 
the Irish Volunteers, there were 2,000 Irishmen interned in Fron- 
goc internment camp. These men were being treated as prisoners- 
of-war by England. The demand was made that all men w4io had 
taken part in the insurrection be similarily treated. As a result 
of the pressure of public opinion in Ireland as well as in Eng- 
land, and since England had inscribed on her war banners, "The 
Freedom of Small Nations" while having imprisoned in her own 
country the soldiers of a small nation who had fought for the 
freedom of their country, England decided that it was necessary 
to placate public opinion. So she released the 2,000 interned 
men of Frongoc and brought all the remaining 125 convicts (in- 
cluding De Valera) to Lewes prison, where certain slight con- 
cessions were made to them. They were allowed to converse while 
at exercise, but still the degradation of the convict dress and 
the lesser discipline of the prison was enforced upon them. 

After a few months at Lewes the Irish prisoners agreed that 
the time had arrived when a vigorous protest was necessary to 
win the rights of prisoners-of-war. De Valera waited his oppor- 
tunity. The news was trickling through the prison bars that huge 
meetings were being held in Ireland, demanding that England 
treat her prisoners according to the rules of civilized warfare. 
One of the Irish prisoners, owing to the continued confinement, 
was in very poor health, and his release was ordered, on medical 



Appendix B 237 

grounds. De Valera grasped the opportunity offered by the re- 
lease of this prisoner to send word to the leaders of the move- 
ment in Ireland. He unfolded his plans to them and asked their 
opinion as to the advisability of starting a fight behind the prison 
walls. A code had been agreed upon and De Valera awaited 
results. 

He fully realized the grave responsibility in committing 125 
men to a fight that must end, either in death or in freedom. The 
convict system adopted by England is very rigorous, and it has 
proved sufficient to break the toughest criminals of the British 
Empire. De Valera knew full well that the British government 
would not permit the prison discipline to be broken, without taking 
drastic measures to enforce it. 

The people of Ireland, through their leaders, decided that the 
time for action had arrived. They were willing to throw all else 
in one balance, to strike for justice. So, on \Vhitsunday morn- 
ing, 1917, an innocent telegram was handed to one of the Irish 
prisoners by the British jailer. It bore the news of the death 
of a relative. This was the signal for which De Valera and his 
fellow prisoners waited ! The following morning, after exercise, 
when all the prisoners were lined up to go to their dififerent work, 
De Valera stepped out of the ranks and handed his ultimatum to 
the principal warder. He demanded for his men the status of 
prisoners-of-war, and declared that they would no longer obey the 
discipline of the prison. This was deemed mutiny. The governor 
of the prison announced that he could not discuss the matter and 
ordered the men to their work. The men refused to answer the 
order of the governor, and each man, being questioned individ- 
ually, replied that he would receive orders from no one save Com- 
mandant De Valera. 

The men were then returned to their cells where they were 
confined for one week. The eighth day dawned bringing no 
change in the situation, and De Valera, at a given signal, ordered 
the men to wreck their cells. This they did, efl:'ectively. All the 
windows and the cell furniture were completely destroyed. There 
were twenty-four panes of glass in each cell, and 125 times 24 
gives the total of the glass that came crashing through the cells 
like the thunderbolt of doom. Terror struck the prison as the 
terrific noise sounded through the corridors. 

This action brought an answer from the British Home Office, 
and the men were transferred to the convict prisons of Maidstone, 
Parkh'irst and Portland. The men were chained together in 
groups as they travelled through the country, and as they reached 
their respective prisons, they continued the fight with unabated 



238 Appendix B 

vigor. The matter resolved itself into a question of England's con- 
vict system against the spirit and defiance of the Irish Volunteers. 
The news, of course, had reached Ireland and protest meetings 
had been held all over the country. Mr. Balfour had just returned 
from America, and, no doubt, informed his government that their 
treatment of the Irish prisoners, and their treatment of Ireland 
generally, was not approved by the liberty loving people of Amer- 
ica. Finally, as a result of the pressure of public opinion from 
without, and the breaking down of the prison discipline within, 
England opened her prison gates and the Irish Volunteers 
marched out, free men ! 

On leaving Pentonville prison, De Valera was handed a cable- 
gram, asking him to accept the nomination as Republican candi- 
date for the vacancy in the House of Parliament caused by the 
death of Capt. Willie Redmond. East Clare had been the strong- 
hold of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Mr. P. Lynch, K. C, a 
native of the constituency, with influential business and family 
connections, generally looked upon as a man who could not be 
beaten in a contest in his own country was the man with whom 
De Valera was to measure his steel for the seat in Parliament. 

De Valera's first act on arriving in Clare was to read the 
proclamation issued by the insurgents of Easter Week. He asked 
the people of Clare to say by their vote that the men who de- 
clared the Irish Republic in Dublin in 1916 truly represented 
the feelings and aspirations of the Irish people. On the moment 
of his arrival De Valera captured young and old by his clear 
enunciation of Ireland's rights to sovereign independence, by his 
repudiation of England's right to rule in Ireland, and by his dash- 
ing personality. He captured Clare by the hitherto unheard of 
majority of three to one. 

He was again arrested on May 18, 1918, and deported to Eng- 
land and locked up. He escaped from Lincoln prison in the 
spring of 1919 and shortly thereafter came to America, eluding 
the entire police and the secret service agents of the British Em- 
pire. 



239 



APPENDIX C 

DE VALERa's address IN CHICAGO 

De Valcra's complete address was as follows : 

"My friends : Since I have come to your land, I have admired 
its magnitude; I have admired the splendor of your buildings, but 
it is not these things that have appealed to me as showing me I 
was in America. It was the new spirit that I encountered in this 
country. 

"You have the grand enthusiasm \\ hich is associated only with 
youth; you have the boyishness of youth, w'hich makes us in the 
old world feel stale. 

"I had gotten a sample of Americans and I had gotten a good 
sample of Chicago, I think, when I met Governor Dunne. I knew 
you would not have honored him in this great city as you did 
honor him unless he were a good sample, but I thought that joy- 
ousness, that youth about him was something individual and par- 
ticular to himself. But I find that it is not; that it is characteristic 
of this city, and that it is characteristic of Americans wherever 
I have found them since I have come here. 

"As I looked at an Indian here, the thought struck me that, 
if you had the blood of millions on your national soul, neither 
could you be enthusiastic and sympathetic as you are. 

"It is because the national soul of your country is pure, you 
have trodden on no peoples, you have stood out for liberty, the 
same liberty that you won yourselves by fighting your oppressors. 

"You have stood out for that liberty, and because you are pure 
in your national soul, in the words of your own poet, you 'can 
look the whole world in the face,' and be what your heart prompts 
you to be. 

"Resolutions which were proposed, and which were adopted, 
particularly the one about the League of Nations, contained in 
them the grounds on which Americans were out of sympathy with 
the proposed covenant and were opposed to it. 

"These grounds were purely American grounds, and I, 
as a stranger and as a guest here, could not presume to interfere 
in matters of that kind, but I am on solid ground when I object to 
the proposed covenant of the League of Nations, because it is 
going to do injustice to my country. I know that is ground on 
which I can stand before Americans ; that they will not join hands 
with an Empire that seeks to keep Ireland in servitude. 

"Ireland's attitude with respect to the general idea of a League 



240 Appendix C 

of Nations has been made clear in Ireland by the Irish Parliament, 
by the official documents which we submitted to the Peace Con- 
ference, and, I would say, by my supplementary statement, as 
head of the Irish government, in Boston. I would, therefore, not 
be misunderstood when I devote the few words I am going to 
speak to you about Article X of the proposed covenant of the 
League of Nations. 

"Now, that article, if the treaty is accepted in that form, means 
for us that we are to be cut off from the sympathy that you here 
are giving us ; from the practical, material and moral aid of every 
country on earth except the one which is holding us in sub- 
jection. We are to be cut off by that from seeking your 
sympathy in the future, and from seeking from you such aid 
as you sought and received from France, such aid as you gave to 
the Latin countries in America, such aid as you recently gave, and 
in giving gave to the limit, as you have in every case, by deliver- 
ing the subject peoples of Austria from the yoke of Austria, the 
Russians from the yoke of Russia, and the Prussians from the 
yoke of Prussia. 

"I say that we are here to ask the American people not to 
do that act of injustice to Ireland. I know it is not necessary fur- 
ther to point out to you how it would be an act of injustice to us ; 
it is not necessary to labor any further. If it were not a direct act 
of injustice, but simply did not accord with the principles that 
you hold at heart, I believe that I would have to say nothing 
more about it. 

"Well, then, we ask you to make representations to your gov- 
ernment, to ask them to see that Ireland by that covenant is not 
put in the position in which she will bo consigned to the mercies 
of England. 

"We have ourselves in Ireland done everything it is possible 
for a people to do who are not as militarily strong as the nation 
that has its forces occupying the island. 

"We have done and fulfilled all the requirements which are 
necessary to show what way the will of the Irish peoples lies. We 
had our elections. At these elections the people voted. They voted 
on the direct issue of whether they wanted a Republic or not, and 
by a two to one majority they voted in favor of the Republic, and 
the Republic is established. 

"Now we come here in addition to ask you not to do an act 
of injustice; we ask you to do the positive act of justice. We say 
and hold that, in accordance with American principles, our Re- 
public is there and that America, in accordance with her princi- 
ples, is going to recognize it. 



Appendix C • 241 

"A Republic exists, a government exists, a government ready 
to function, ready to perform all of the duties of government, but 
it is prevented from functioning by some arbitrary force, the same 
force as that which held Belgium and prevented the Belgian gov- 
ernment from functioning when a foreign army occupied Bel- 
gium. 

"The position of Ireland is this: that a foreign force occupies 
our country and will not let a legitimate government of the coun- 
try function. 

"Now, your recognition of the Republic is your right. England 
has no right to come along and tell you that you can't do that. 

"England tells you, 'Hands ofl Ireland.' The British lion 
growls immediately when anybody is likely to disturb its prey. I 
believe this great nation is big enough and proud enough to say 
it has a right to recognize justice and to turn away from injustice. 

"I might be asked why I have come to America first. Why 
have I come to America rather than to France or to Spain or to 
some other country? Well, I think the reason is obvious. But 
it is not so much that here in this country there is a large portion 
of men and women of Irish blood ; it is not even because we recog- 
nize that here we have a liberty-loving people ; but it is because we 
know that this nation is big enough to be able to stand up and fol- 
low its own will, irrespective of whether John Bull likes it or not. 
"I was once asked in Ireland by the representative of an 
American paper why it was, now that America had entered the 
war and America would be there as guarantor, that the principles 
for which she entered the war would be the principles on which 
peace would be made — I was asked, 'Why do you not now ask the 
Irish people to get out and fight in the English army? It would 
be, of course, a fight beside Americans.' 

"My answer was this: America is a mighty nation of 101,- 
000,000 of people or so; we are a nation of 4,500,000, the rem- 
nant that has been left of what I will call the British war in Ire- 
land, because it has been more devastating in Ireland than the war 
was in Flanders. Within human memory, British war in Ireland 
has devastated Ireland and destroyed a greater portion of the pop- 
ulation of Ireland than did the war destroy in Flanders or any- 
where else. 

"I said, then, we are a nation of four and a half millions; we 
could be cheated at the end ; but America is too big a nation, and 
America has to look nowhere else but to itself for guarantees that 
it won't be cheated, and if I were an American with the principles 
that Amicrica put forward as her principles I would have to join 
America's army, and I hold that those of us who were fighting 



242 Appendix C 

England were in reality fighting for the very principles for which 
the Americans fought in their army. 

"Well, then, I am asking of America two things, one which ap- 
peals to America's greatness and the other to America's honesty. 

"I appeal to the American greatness, the nobility of their soul, 
and ask them — because the Englishman forgets — are they not go- 
ing to recognize the right in others to live and to get the same 
forms of government as they themselves chose and prospered 
under? 

"I am appealing to America's sense of honesty and sense of 
fair play and justice when I ask it not to take away from us the 
only weapon by which any nation has won its freedom in the 
past. 

"That weapon seldom has been its own power from within. 
We are ready to use every man and every adult in the effort of 
our people to strive for freedom, to strive to get the Englishmen 
out. 

"But, in the past, if you study history with that purpose, you 
will find that it has rarely been the good fortune of any small na- 
lion to loosen from itself the grip of imperialism. 

"That grip has been loosened by the sympathy of outside na- 
tions and by the practical help which under certain conditions 
these nations were able to give to the smaller ones, and you are 
cutting away from us the great chance to obtain that liberty by 
getting rid of the Englishman. 

"Well, then, I feel certain from the enthusiasm which has 
been shown to our cause here since I have come here, that our 
appeal both to your honesty and to your greatness will be met with 
giving us what we ask, and that is the recognition to which we are 
entitled, namely, that you will not commit yourselves to agreeing 
to cut us off from that sympathy which alone can free us." 



243 



APPENDIX D 

COUNTESS DE MARKIEVICZ 

Countess de Markievicz is one of the most remarkable women 
in Irish history. In the Easter insurrection she personally led 
the men in the attack on Dublin Castle, seat of the British gov- 
ernment in the Irish capital, and, it is said, shot down the king's 
sentinel, and did it in heroic style. When finally she was forced 
to surrender, believing she was soon to face the firing squad, she 
proudly kissed the pistol with which she had done effective work 
throughout the insurrection, if all the tales be true. She is slav- 
ishly idolized by the poor of Ireland and the revolutionary 
patriots. The following sketch of her life is by Norah Meade, 
who had known the countess intimately for many years, and was 
written shortly after the Easter insurrection : 

Constance, Countess de Markievicz, is now a prisoner of the 
British Crown, officially charged with treason. In the recent Irish 
rebellion she led the attack on Dublin Castle, and to citizens whose 
memories go back some thirty years her part was peculiarly 
ironical. 

In those days Dublin Castle was the official residence of her 
maternal uncle, the English Marquis of Zetland. By birth the 
Countess de Markievicz is Constance Gore-Booth, daughter of Sir 
Jocelyn, an Irish Baronet. Her mother is the daughter of the 
late Marquis of Zetland and sister of that Irish Lord Lieutenant 
whose reign is still remembered by reason of its social brilliance. 
Her youth was spent in the manor house of Lissadell, a village 
of County Sligo, and here — so the tradition goes — so thoroughly 
did Lady Gore-Booth preserve her native English atmosphere 
that even the clocks are set by Greenwich time. She was less 
successful in setting the tone of her daughter's sentiments. 

Tw'o stories come down from the girlhood of Constance Gore- 
Booth, which indicate her attitude toward parental authority. At 
the time Parnell was the premier patriot of Ireland and the youth 
of the country were at his feet, evidently he had fired the girl's 
imagination, and when he was scheduled to speak in a neighbor- 
ing town she determined at all costs to hear him. Her mother 
decided that she should stay at home. 

There are no trolleys and few trains in the West of Ireland, 
so Lady Gore-Booth laid an embargo on all means of conveyance 
and considered her position safe. I'ut she reckoned without the 
resourcefulness of her daughter. Corralling two horses from a 



244 Appendix D 

neighboring farm, Constance and her sister, Eva, rode recklessly 
across country and arrived in time to hear the speech. But if 
her conduct in this case amounted to insult, in the next it aimed 
at deliberate injury. 

Land troubles were rife in the West and the tenants had 
decided on a strike. "No Rents" was their war cry. But at that 
time landlords still were formidable and there was some hesitancy 
about carrying out the campaign. A meeting was called to decide 
finally and proved sensational in an unexpected way. Among 
those not invited, but nevertheless present, was the courageous 
and irrepressible Constance, wdio came to advise the tenants to 
refuse payment to her own father! 

With all due respect to the maternal tenderness of Lady Gore- 
Booth, one has a vivid picture of her relief when Constance dis- 
covered her genius for painting and betook herself to Paris to 
become a student. One has a companion picture of the regret of 
Sir Jocelyn's Connaught tenants at the loss of this lovely land- 
lord's daughter. 

Constance Gore-Booth silent many years in Paris where she 
was well known in artistic circles. When she finally returned to 
Ireland it was with a reputation well established as a painter. 
Meantime she had acquired the title of countess. Casimir de 
Markievicz is now in his own country, where he has been reported 
wounded on the Russian front, but for many years he was a 
familiar figure in Dublin beside his tall, distinguished Irish wife. 

That the countess was as incorrigible as Miss Constance Gore- 
Booth was evident from the very start. She was still as impossible 
of control, still as reckless of consequence, still as generous of 
impulse. Also she was unguarded of tongue. They tell a story 
of her first visit to her staid English mother with her Russian- 
Polish husband. All three were taking tea one afternoon in the 
drawing room of Lissadell. It had been a wet day and Lady 
Gore-Booth now requested her son-in-law to see whether the 
weather had cleared. He went out, returned and reported suc- 
cinctly : 

"Raining lik blue hell !" 

His mother-in-law stift'ened in her chair, and Count Casimir. 
by now accustomed to such symptoms, hastily explained : 

"You see, Constance has taught me all the English I know." 

About 1905 the two settled in Dublin, where they lived until 
the outbreak of the war. The count, himself a painter of note, 
became official artist of the court. There was no official function 
at which the couple were not present. But meantime, equally 
inevitably, they were gravitating toward a dift'erent group, for 



Appfndix D 245 

they were thinkers before they were social favorites. 

Eva Gore-Booth, sister of the countess, had already proved 
herself a poetess of note. Her one piece, "The Rose of Breffni." 
would alone have entitled her to recognition among Irish writers. 
Her brother. Sir Jocelyn, though not a man of particular force, 
was nevertheless playing a helpful i)a"rt in progressive agricultural 
movements. These two facts in themselves served as a bond. 

Countess de Markievicz and her husband soon found them- 
selves in the current of Irish intellectualism, and intellectualism, 
as it is practiced in Dublin, seems indissolubly bound up with 
nationalism. Constance de Markievicz, as a result of her new 
connections, began the study of Irish history. That was the begin- 
ning of the end. She soon drifted from her former set. In the 
beginning her husband entered a mild protest. But very soon he 
was imbued with his wife's sentiments, as is shown by his play, 
"The Memory of the Dead." 

But no artistic medium could give expression to the new seeds 
in the coutness' soul. She was above all things practical. She 
needed action. To her is due the arming of the first force in 
Ireland. It started in the name of Fianna, a body of boys in their 
teens, which corresponded roughly with Baden-Powell's English 
scouts. They met every week in a hall in Camden street, where 
they were drilled under the countess' direction. At times they 
betook themselves to the open, maneuvering in the Dublin moun- 
tains where the countess had a cottage. Charity was one of the 
virtues on which her regulations insisted, and these boys, so the 
story goes, were forever finding abandoned babies or deserving 
cases among the poor of Dublin, all of whom they referred to 
their General. She took them in. Soon her own handsome house 
was for rent. She could no longer afford its upkeep. She and 
her husband moved into smaller quarters. 

When the labor troubles broke out in Dublin under the leader- 
ship of Larkin it was the Countess de Markievicz who took charge 
of the women and children whose men relatives were engaged in 
the riot. 

A co-operative farm, which would at once help and teach the 
peasant, was her next philantropic venture. It was established 
just outside Dublin. 

When war broke out Countess de Markievicz was among those 
who repudiated Redmond's pledge of Irish loyalty to the English 
cause. Being a Sinn Feiner, she saw in Great Britain's difficulties 
only a unique opportunity for Ireland. At once she became a sub- 
ject of suspicion to the secret service, and her house was closely 
watched. Early this year (1916) under the defense of the realm 



246 Appendix D 

act, it was raided and a j)rinting press seized. They found therti 
some letters that led to the capture of a rebel arsenal. I 

When the leaders of the extreme nationalists or separatist 
section at length determined on the use of armed force, the 
countess insisted on contributing her small force, though many 
of the men would have excluded her willingly. In the actual 
rising in the Irish capital she marched boldly on the government 
stronghold. 



247 



APPENDIX E 



THE CASE FOR ULSTER. 



The Belfast Chamber of Commerce, which speaks for the 
inner shrine of Ulster and the Covenanters, over the signature of 
H. M. Pollock, president, and W. J. P. Wilson, secretary, on 
May 5, 1917, issued the foUov^ing statement by way of explain- 
ing the unalterable opposition of Ulster to Home Rule : 

"In 1886, in 1893, and in 1912 the Belfast Chamber of Com- 
merce, a non-political body concerned exclusively with commer- 
cial and industrial interests, and widely representative of these 
interests throughout Ulster, was constrained, in view of the dan- 
ger with which those interests were threatened by proposals for 
the establishment of Home Rule in Ireland, to pronounce in well- 
considered and unequivocal terms its settled conviction that any 
attempt to depart from the princi])le of the Union with Great 
Britain and to set up a separate Parliament and Executive Gov- 
ernment for Ireland would be fraught with economic disaster and 
involve bitter conflict between opposing sections having different 
economic and political ideas, and lead to grave breaches of social 
order. 

"The events of the [)ast few years have only served to con- 
firm and strengthen those convictions, which we reaffirm to-day. 

"The absolute determination of the great body of the people of 
Northeast Ireland to refuse to come under a Home Rule gov- 
ernment and to resist at any sacrifice all attempts to coerce them 
to submit to Nationalist rule has been clearly and sufficiently 
demonstrated, and remains unshaken, and this position has been 
recognized in the declaration of both the past and the present 
Prime Minister that coercion cannot be applied to Ulster. 

"The growth of the Sinn Fein movement, the recent outburst 
of rebellion, and the lamentable failure of Nationalist Ireland to 
make any. adecjuate response to the call of the country for war 
service in the hour of her greatest need, have disclosed the full 
extent of the deep-rooted anti-British spirit which is the main- 
spring of the separatist movement, and which has got cjuite be- 
yond the control of the official Nationalist leaders. 

"Since the Chamber was last called on to speak on these grave 
issues, schemes for procuring some kind of settlement by the 
separate treatment of Ulster, or part of Ulster, have been the 
staple of political manoeuvering, and an arrangement for the estab- 



248 Appendix E 

lishment of Home Rule with the exclusion of six Ulster counties 
was reluctantly acceded to by the Ulster Unionist Council in 
response to appeals from their Parliamentary leaders made in the 
hope that this w'ould ensure an union and concentration of energy 
and service for the effective prosecution of the War. 

"This scheme, although publicly advocated by the official 
Nationalist party, aroused such a storm of opposition that the 
Nationalist leaders subsec}uently found themselves compelled to 
abandon it. 

"Demands are now being made by certain organs of the press 
and from some Parliamentary C]uarters that Unionist Ulster 
should make further concessions for the sake of a settlement to 
permit of the realization of ideals which we regard as wholly 
visionary and impracticable, and on this the Ulster people and 
their political leaders have made it clear that they have gone to 
the last limits of concession. 

"We are firm in our belief that the best service Ulster can 
render to Ireland is to save her, misled by false national sentiment 
and ill-considered views of true Irish interests, from losing, either 
in whole or in part, the full communion of interest and economic 
life with Great Britain which is secure to her under the Union. 

"At a time like the present, when throughout the Empire 
close co-operation between its constituent elements is seen to be 
essential for the furtherance of their mutual interests, and when 
for the maintenance and fostering of our great commercial life 
a closer co-operation is called for throughout the whole com- 
munity by establishing and developing the activity of Chambers 
of Commerce, Guilds, and Trade Associations, it seems to us in 
utter conflict with the spirit of the age that this country of Ire- 
land should, either in respect of its institutions of government or 
its economic welfare, seek to break or impair its partnership with 
the rich and powerful people who have taken rank among the 
most freedom-loving nations of the world, and with whom Ire- 
land must always have her greatest interests in common. 

"We have looked in vain for any expression of Nationalist 
views as to what a Home Rule government will do, or even 
attempt to do, for the material advancement or promotion of the 
prosperity of the country. We fail to see how Ireland could gain 
by obtaining fiscal autonomy. At present she shares with Eng- 
land and Scotland the benefit of all the public services of the 
United Kingdom, while only contributing a mere fraction of the 
cost. For some years Ireland's purely local expenditure largely 
exceeded her contributions to Imperial revenue (the deficiency 
amounting to £1,222,500 in 1913-14), until the increase of taxa- 



Appendix E 249 

tion due to the war produced a surplus. 

"Of the total revenue of the United Kingdom, according to 
the official returns for the year ending 31st March, 1916, Ireland 
only brought in 5.52 per cent., while her drafts on the National 
Exchequer for purely local expenditure are 13.94 of the total 
local expenditure of the United Kingdom, or 2^^ times more than 
she would receive proportionally to her contribution. 

"The old cry of the over-taxation of Ireland, based on 'taxable 
capacity' as treated by the Financial Commission of 1895, cannot 
be raised to-day. 

"It is remarkable that Irish trade in exports and imports, as 
shown by the Report of the Department of Agriculture and Tech- 
nical Instruction, amounted in 1914 to nearly £146,000,000, being 
£34 9s 2d per head of the population, as against £21 9s 9d for 
the whole United Kingdom. This is not, of course, a real guage 
of wealth, which depends largely on internal development and 
internal trade, but it surely indicates the necessity of maintaining 
fiscal unity between Ireland and Great Britain. Especially is 
this so in the case of the industries of Ulster, which depend so 
largely on commerce overseas. 

'Tf the country were suffering from misgovernment mere 
financial considerations might not carry so much weight, but we 
fail to discover any statement of serious grievances calling for 
drastic constitutional change. 

"In a recent speech of Mr. John Redmond, leader of the 
Nationalist party, quoted in the House of Commons, he stated:- — 
'To-day the people, broadly speaking, own the soil ; to-day the 
labourers live in decent habitations ; to-day there is absolute free- 
dom in the local government and the local taxation of the country ; 
to-day we have the widest Parliament in the municipal franchise.' 
In the same speech Mr. Redmond also took credit for old-age 
pensions, the restoration of evicted tenants, the transformation of 
the congested districts and a Town Tenants Act far in advance of 
the legislation of Great Britain or any other country, educational 
freedom in university education, and an enormous advance in 
primary and secondary education. 

"A late manifesto of the Nationalist party also gave a trium- 
phant account of the legislative benefits that Ireland has secured, 
claiming them very wrongly as due to their exertions, but suffi- 
ciently demonstrating that from the Parliament in which they 
hold an entirely undue representation, they can obtain anything 
for which they can make a reasonable case. 

"Subject to the exigencies and demands of the war, which 
must claim our undivided attention, all well-considered schemes 



250 Appendix E 

of reform applicable to the United Kingdom that may be con- 
sidered necessary for the relief of Imperial Parliament or the 
more efficient government and administration of local areas will 
receive our sympathetic consideration. 

"The country is prosperous as it never has been before, but 
because of a traditional and wholly unjustified attitude of dis- 
loyalty and discontent we are told again that 'something must be 
done,' and that Ulster must not stand in the way of the demand 
of Nationalist Ireland to govern itself badly. Mr. John Redmond 
has declared that he w^ould rather that Ireland should govern her- 
self badly than take good government from Great Britain. 

"The policy of a partition of Ireland would never have been 
suggested by Unionist Ulster or found support from such a body 
as this Chamber except as a last resort from a greater calamity. 
Our experience of Nationalist conduct and methods in the sphere 
of local government has given us no confidence in their adminis- 
trative ability or fair treatment of minorities. 

"We do not desire to separate the interests of the manufactur- 
ing and industrial community of Ulster which the Chamber rep- 
resents from those of the rest of Ireland, which are overwhelm- 
ingly agricultural, and, while recognizing that they are to some 
extent interdependent, we protest against their future being en- 
trusted to a government from which our special interests would 
meet with little understanding or sympathy, and in which they 
would be at best very inadequately represented. We therefore 
reiterate our claim to remain in the security of the Union with 
Great Britain, in reliance on which we have built up our indus- 
tries, and under which alone Ireland can attain to peace and pros- 
perity." 

Mr. W. Baird, editor and publisher of the Belfast Evening 
Telegraph, is typical of the iron intolerance of Ulster for the 
Catholics and of Ulster's opposition to Home Rule. He is a rugged 
soul and wholly rational on all subjects except self-government 
and separation. Then one might as well shout to the moon. 
He has been pre-eminently successful in business and has lived 
an unimpeachable life. In private and business afifairs no man 
could be more honorable. And yet nature has so constituted him 
that he sees red the moment the word "Catholic" is pronounced. 

On April 11, 1917, under the caption, "The Unionist Posi- 
tion," he prepared a short statement which he published and had 
circulated in great numbers. It is as follows : 

"Tlie renewal of the Home Rule controversy in an acute form, 
and the studied and persistent misrepresentation of the facts of 



Appendix E 251 

the Irish poUtical situation make necessary a brief statement of 
Ulster's position. 

"When the Act of Union was passed, in 1800, a Government 
Commission of the period reported that so desperate was the 
state of the country that over two millions of people were depend- 
ent upon only twenty weeks' work in the year for sustenance .... 
The country was a vast pauper warren. 

"It was to that pass that self-government brought the country. 
In the ninteen years of an Irish Parliament the National Debt 
was multiplied thirteen times, and three times England was 
brought to the verge of war. 

"The population of Ireland at the Act of Union, in 1800, just 
reached 4,000.000, but in 1841 it had increased to 8,175,000. It 
was the great famine in 1849 that scattered the population and 
started the tide of emigration to America, where prospects were 
brighter. 

"Belfast has five of the greatest industries of their kind in 
the world, and it is the third port in the kingdom. Belfast does 
one-eighth of the entire coastwise shipping of the kingdom. 

"Ulster owns 3^ times more shipping than the rest of Ire- 
land combined; it produces 48 per cent of all Irish oats, 41 per 
cent of all Irish potatoes, 53 per cent of all Irish fruit, 99 per 
cent of all Irish flax. Ulster pays in customs and revenue 
£4,915,377, or more than twice the rest of Ireland. 

"In 1911 Ulster's foreign exports and imports had a value of 
£9.987,599, while the total for the rest of Ireland was 
£6,652.743. 

"From the date of the Act of Union until 1891 Unionist Bel- 
fast multiplied its population 13^^^ times, an occurrence without 
parallel in the kingdom. 

"The rate of pauperism in Belfast is 82 per 10,000 of popu- 
lation. In Dublin it is 270 per 10,000, and in the Cork, Waterford, 
and Limerick area it is 284 per 10,000. 

"In Belfast the rates are 7s 5d in the £ on property over 
£20 valuations, and 7s O^d in the £ on valuations of £20 and 
under. In Dublin the rates are North Dublin 10s lly^d in the 
£ ; South Dublin 10s 2d. In Cork the rates are lis 8>4d in the 
£, and in Limerick 12s 4d. 

"Belfast has grown up under the Act of Union, why should 
not the rest of the country have worked similarly, and progressed 
in like manner? 

"Ireland is generously treated by the sister kingdoms. Accord- 
ing to a government return, the local taxation per head in Great 
Britain was 18s 9d, while in Ireland it was only lis 9d. Adding 



252 Appendix E 

Imperial and local taxation together, the figure is — Great Britain, 
£3 13s; Ireland, £2 6s 4d per head of the population. Since 
then the 1909 Budget and the Insurance Act have accentuated 
the disproportion. 

"If Home Rule could possibly be a blessing to this country, 
who should welcome it so eagerly as those who have made Ulster 
and Belfast what they are? Have the British people ever asked 
themselves why it is that Irish Protestantism of all classes and 
sections is solidly opposed to Home Rule? Will it help to an 
understanding of their position if it is pointed out that not a single 
I'rotestant and Loyalist is elected to a seat on any public board 
in Connaught ; that they are similarly and completely ostracised in 
Munster, and only in a small section of Leinster, where they are 
sufficiently centralized, have they any representation whatever? 
Throughout the three provinces they are taxed to provide County 
Council scholarships at the National University, and excluded 
from the possibility of gaining such by a sectarian condition of 
residence. In an Irish Parliament Ulster would be utterly im- 
potent, her industries would be taxed to death for the benefit of 
non-industrial areas, and the whole basis of government would be 
sectarianism, as it is in local government. 

"No contribution of any sort or kind towards a settlement 
has been made except by Irish Loyalists. 

"In June, 1916, they gave an undertaking (1) not tO' further 
resist the application of Home Rule to the Southern and Western 
Provinces; (2) in response to the urgent representation that im- 
portant Imperial interests would be served thereby, the Unionists 
of Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan agreed to go out into the 
political wilderneses of an Irish Parliament, but only on the 
express condition that this represented the limit of Ulster's con- 
cession, and that there should be no forcing of the six counties 
in any way or at any time. 

"The Nationalist contribution to a settlement is a rebellion. 
They have held out for their pound of flesh, and demand the 
application of coercion tO' Ulster. 

"To drive Loyalists out from the full sovereignty of a Parlia- 
ment and a system of government with which they are content, 
and force upon them the domination of another which they detest 
and fear, w'ould be the negation of justice and freedom. 

"£100,000,000 of British credit is pledged to Ireland to sub- 
stitute a peasant proprietary in Ireland for the landlord system. 
How is the rest of the scheme to be completed without British 
aid? No money could be raised on the security of an Irish 
Parliament for such a purpose, because of the no-rent agitation 



Appendix E 253 

carried on by the Nationalist party. 

"It is claimed that there is a majority for Home Rule in 
geographical Ulster. The statement is entirely erroneous. The 
figures of population are — Protestants, 886,333 ; Roman Catholics^ 
690,134. Through several election anomalies, such as East Bel- 
fast, with 20,000 electors, and Newry with 2,021, having the 
same Parliamentary representation, the net result is 16 Unionist 
members, and 17 Nationalists, despite a difference in population 
of nearly 200,000. 

"Ireland has an average of one Parliamentary representative 
for 6,700 electors, while England has only one representative to 
every 13,000 electors. 

"East Belfast, with one representative, has over 20,000 elec- 
tors, a number which equals the combined totals of Galway, Kil- 
kenny, Limerick, Londonderry, Newry, and Waterford. East 
Belfast has more voters than any two divisions of Dublin, and 
North Belfast has more voters than Cork City, which has two 
members. 

"The population of two of the Unionist counties — Antrim 
and Down — is more than one-sixth of the whole population of 
Ireland, and exceeds that of the entire province of Connaught 
by 173,000, though Connaught has 15 members. 

"Mr. J. Devlin, M. P.; Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M. P.; and other 
advocates of Home Rule, finding it impossible to explain away the 
marvellous prosperity of Belfast under the Act of Union, and 
unable to reconcile this with their arguments for Home Rule, 
have asserted that it abounds in slums. 

"The slums in Belfast are in the West Division, which is 
represented by Mr. Devlin. Double tenancies without separate 
sanitary conveniences were created to secure his majority. The 
Belfast Corporation in 1911 prepared a Parliamentary bill which, 
amongst other things, proposed to end this. In jjublic meeting of 
the City Council, the Nationalist representatives declared that if 
this clause were retained the entire bill would be blocked by the 
Nationalist and Labour parties, and the clause had to be struck 
out to save the bill. 

"In consequence of similar slanderous misrepresentations 
made concerning Belfast, a Vice-regal Commission in 1908 con 
ducted an exhaustive inquiry, as a result of which these allega- 
tions were convincingly refuted, though still persisted in. The 
following two extracts from the official report are emphatic and 
indisputable : — 

" 'Belfast is a town of rapid modern development, consisting 
largely of wide streets lined with rows of comparatively modern 



254 Appendix E 

dwellings, the vast majority of which are self-contained, so that 
there is an almost complete absence of antiquated courts, alleys, 
and common yards, such as may be seen in Dublin and Cork, 
and also in many of the older seaport towns in England and 
Wales.' 'Slums are rare in Belfast. Indeed, much evidence was 
tendered to the Commission which went to show that in the 
matter of housing, both in respect of room accommodation and 
in respect of the scale of charges for rent, Belfast is greatly 
favoured in comparison with other towns.' 

"Contrast this with the position in Nationalist governed Dub- 
lin, where 33.9 per cent of the total families reside in a single 
room; where the pawning is £2 4s per annum per head of the 
entire population; where 41.9 per cent of the deaths occur in 
workhouses, asylums, and other institutions. 

"Dublin has 22,133 one-roomed dwellings and 13,087 two- 
roomed dwellings, but no Nationalist member, either inside or out- 
side the House of Commons, has started a crusade to have this 
disgrace swept away. 

"Mr. Redmond and others have presented a comparative table 
of rateable valuations at per head of population for Ulster, Lein- 
ster, and Munster as follows: — Leinster, £4 17s 3d; Munster, 
£3 6s; Ulster, £3 4s lOd. 

"Here are the official figures of population and valuation from 
the government returns: — Leinster — Population, 1,160,328; valu- 
ation, £5,206,459. Munster— Population, 1,033.085; valuation, 
£3,499,447. Ulster— Population, 1.578,572 ; valuation, £5,571,- 
454. Connaught— Population, 610,000; valuation, £1,463,000. 
Belfast— Population, 400,000; valuation, £1,527,00. DubUn— 
Population, 304,802; valuation, £943,023. Ulster's valuation is 
35 per cent of all Ireland. 

"It will be seen that the population of Ulster exceeds that of 
Leinster by 418,244, which is more than a third of the latter's 
total. This fact was suppressed in Mr. Redmond's calculation. 

"Ulster has located upon it 33.7 more people per square mile 
than Leinster, the next largest province in population. 

"The government returns show that in Leinster there are 
35,200 people in receipt of poor relief; Munster has 34,110; 
while Ulster, with its excess population of 418,244, has only 
19,850. 

"The following figures indicate the average poor-rate pound- 
age for the various provinces of Ireland, and they convey their 
own lesson : 

"Leinster, poor rate Is 6d in the £1. 
"Connaught, poor rate Is 7^d in the £1. 



Appendix E 25S 

"Munster, poor rate Is 11 3^2(1 in the £1. 

"Ulster, poor rate Ud in the £1. 

"In recruits to the new armies Ulster has contributed 59,000, 
while the combined total of the other three provinces is only 
51,700. The City of Belfast, with a population of 403,000, has 
given more recruits than Connaught, Munster and Leinster (ex- 
cluding Dublin area) combined, representing a population of 
2,066,000. The percentages of males of military age who have 
recruited are as follows: — Ulster, 33.8; Leinster (including Dub- 
lin), 17.7; Munster, 11.7; Connaught, 4.9. 

"In contributions to the recent War Loan the City of Belfast 
contributed £25,000,000, and Ulster provided 85 per cent of the 
total raised in Ireland for this purpose. 

"It has been frequently asserted on Nationalist platforms that 
Nationalists are intolerably treated in Ulster. The published 
official returns establish the following: — In Antrim they are 20 
per cent of the population and they hold 22 per cent of public 
appointments. In Down they are 31 per cent and they hold 29 
per cent similarly. In Armagh they are 45 per cent and they hold 
48 per cent. In Derry they are 40 per cent and they hold 38. 
While in 'bigoted Belfast' they are less than 25 per cent, but 
they possess 37 per cent of public appointments. 

"Mr. Birrell having made a public statement that the Belfast 
Corporation employed only one Roman Catholic — 'a solitary 
scavenger' — the General Purposes Committee of the Council 
ordered a return to be prepared of the amounts paid in wages and 
salaries in the various departments to Roman Catholic and Pro- 
testant employees. This was submitted on February 13, 1919, and 
showed that Roman Catholics received per annum in wages £49,- 
498 and in salaries £4,231, though the contributions to rates just 
exceeded £ 18.000 per year. These are examples of what is 
described as 'Ulster bigotry and intolerance.' 

"The following comparison between Unionist Antrim and 
Down and Nationalist Galway and Clare tells its own story : — 

"In County Antrim the police force numbers twelve per 10,000 
of the population, which represents one for each 833 people. 

"County Down has exactly the same figure, which is consid- 
erably better than the English and Scotch ratio of one policeman 
to each 630 people. 

"Clare and Galway present a startling contrast, for here the 
figure is one policeman to each 208 people in Galway, or 48 per 
10.000 of population, and only a slightly better rate in Clare. 

"Why should not the South and West of Ireland be like 
Unionist Ulster? They would be but for the paid agitator, who 



2S6 Appendix E 

keeps alive a system of crime and intimidation that calls for a 
huge police force to protect the victims. 

"In the province of Ulster, according to the Chief Secretary 
for Ireland, in February, 1912, there were but three cases of 
boycotting of 'minor degree,' affecting twenty-one persons, and 
these were in Nationalist counties, whereas in the other three 
provinces there were eighty such cases, afifecting 324 people, and 
forty-two other persons were either wholly, or almost wholly, boy- 
cotted. 

"In Ulster there was at the same date but one case under 
constant police protection, and one protected by patrol (in Nation- 
alist districts), whereas in the other three provinces sixty-seven 
people were under constant protection, and 286 under police 
patrol. What would happen were British protection withdrawn 
and the administration of law and order entrusted to those who 
have made boycotting and intimidation part of their political 
system? 

"Home Rule on the Colonial plan is put forward as all that 
is aimed at. The whole history of the Home Rule agitation has 
had, and still has, as its watchword, 'Ireland a Nation' — not a 
colony. 

"The Colonies support themselves; does Ireland propose to do 
so? To which of the Colonies has Britain given £100,000,000 for 
land purchase? Which of them asks for an annual subsidy in 
perpetuity of £3,000,000 to carry on the business of govern- 
ment? 

"Which of them proposes to establish a religious ascendency, 
and call it government ? vSuch a government would involve one 
religion being for ever in power, and the other for ever in sub- 
jugation. 

"The Colonies possess and exercise the right to tax English 
manufactures imported into their countries. Is England prepared 
to grant this power to Ireland, to be employed in crippling British 
industries? 

"Does any Colony claim the right — as Nationalist Ireland does 
— to manage its own affairs without any interference from Great 
Britain, and at the same time send its representatives to interfere 
and in fact hold the balance in deciding British affairs? All these 
proposals are part of what is grotesquely called Home Rule 'on 
the Colonial Plan.' 

"the value of guarantees STATISTICS EXTRACTED FROM THE 

OFFICIAL FIGURES OF 1911. 

Roman Catholics. Protestants. 
"ULSTER— Population, 690,134 886,333 



Appendix E ■ 257 

"Representatives on County Councils. 112 123 

"Representatives in Parliament, 17 16 

"Proportion of County Council representatives — Roman Cath- 
olics, 1 for 6,162 of population; Protestants, 1 for each 7,206. 
"CONNAUGHT— Population, .587,237 23,273 

"Representatives on Countv Councils, 227 

"MUNSTER— Population.' 972,172 60,715 

"Representatives on Countv Councils. 227 

"LEI NSTER— Population^ 989,113 170,230 

"Representatives on County Councils, 332 12 

"Grand total of Roman Catholic population in Connaught, 
Munster, and Leinster, 2,548,522; of Protestants, 254,218. 

"Total Roman Catholic representatives on County Councils, 
789; and of Protestants. 12. 

"Proportion of representatives — Roman Catholic, 1 for each 
3,600 of population; Protestants, 1 for each 21,185. 

"Dr. E. C. Thompson, of Omagh, who has contested Ulster 
seats as an Independent Unionist, and represented North Mona- 
ghan as a Nationalist, has apparently lost belief in Home Rule. 
In a letter to the press he says: — April, 1917. 'We who live in 
Ireland and know all that has happened are absolutely opposed 
to any reconsideration whatever of the Irish cjuestion until after 
the war and until Ireland has purged herself of all the sins of 
omission and commission with which (I believe against the wish 
of the immense majority of her people) she has allowed her 
good name to be tarnished. I was a believer in Home Rule until 
last April. I confess the rebellion and the scandalous laxity in 
recruiting and the difficulties ever^'where thrown in the path of 
the authorities in their efforts to get aid from Ireland to help 
them to win this war have had a great effect on my mind, and 
also upon the opinion of thousands of other men who thought as 
I did a year ago. Everywhere I go I find men of judgment and 
education expressing a similar view. No country engaged in the 
war is doing less in any way to help the enemy's defeat than Ire- 
land. In no country in the world is there more absolute freedom 
and less general poverty, and none where the farmers and 
labourers were more generally happy and contented.' 

"Dr. R. L. Marshall, Maghera, County Derry. writing under 
date April 7, 1917. says — 'Because the currents of the Ulsterman's 
soul run silent and deep there is a foolish tendency to overlook 
the fact that beneath his political and economic objections to 
Nationalist domination there lies also a sentiment still strong and 
deathless. For he, too, has had a past. Vague visions float before 
him of wild nights when his fathers held the bawn against the 



258 Appendix E 

howling Irish kerns, of long years of constant strife when sword- 
won lands were held by the might of the naked blade. He, too, 
has his memories of black, foul treachery and cowardly crime. 
Lean famine — wasted arms wave greetings to him across the 
struggling centuries, bidding him guard the faith for which his 
fathers died, and hold aloft in an Imperial province the flag 
that never fell. There is still for him a crimson sign on Derry's 
crumbling walls, and it is his fathers' graves that line the banks 
of the Bcyne. And so rooted deep in his silent soul, there is 
the conviction that he has a trust he owes to his gallant dead, 
that he is the guardian of a freedom handed down from bleed- 
ing sire to son, and, with the obstinate pride of his race, he will 
keep that faitli. To yield submission to a Dublin Parliament would 
be for him the negation of his whole past history, the surrender 
of his trust and the degradation of his people. Thus if senti- 
ment is the secret of Nationalist persistence in the demand for 
self-government, and this seems generally recognized, sentiment 
is also the overwhelming obstacle in the path of Ulster's inclusion 
in such government, and were every other obstacle removed, her 
economic and political fears dispelled, and every right safe- 
guarded, this same sentiment would effectively bar the way to 
any settlement without clear-cut partition. Those who think 
otherwise are living in a land of unreality, and will yet have a 
rude awakening. For they will yet be forced to recognize that 
no pressure, devised either by Unionist perverts or truckling time- 
servers, will avail to overcome this legacy of heritage. One 
thing is sure, whatever else she may lose, and she has lost much 
in these last years, Ulster will keep her soul.' 

"Mr. Kyle Knox, writing April, 1917: — T see several papers 
call on the Protestant corner to give up its nonpossumus attitude 
and concede something indefmite. Allow me to point out the 
various concessions, each of which was in turn expected to con- 
vert discontent into loyalty. There was the great Emancipation 
Act. It gave Ireland an important share in the government of 
the Empire. The history used in many national schools says 
it was granted only through 'fear.' The historian lays no weight 
on the fact, nor does he think it worthy of mention, that the 
whole body of Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland gave a guaran- 
tee ending in these words : — 'They swear that they will not exer- 
cise any privilege to which they are or may be entitled to disturb 
and weaken the Protestant religion and Protestant government of 
Ireland.' In five or six years afterwards we had the Tithe War. 
The tithe was reduced and charged to the landlord. In 1868 
the Protestant Church of Ireland was discovered to be the upas 



Appendix E 259 

tree, and was disestablished and disendowed. Our Prime Minis- 
ter considered it judicious to inform the pubhc that the blowing 
up of Clerkwell Prison led to his discovery. Then the twenty- 
six millions invested in titles to land at 25 and 26 years' pur- 
chase, on the faith of the Encumbered Estates Act of Parliament 
declaring them 'indefeasible,' were made practically 'unsaleable' 
except to the tenants, and at prices varying from 19 to 16 years' 
purchase. About three generations of children have been edu- 
cated in the national schools (latterly with church funds), and 
we have as a result of all these concessions (at the expense of 
the Loyalists) a Sinn Eein rebellion during a war for the exist- 
ence of the Empire, and we are invited by the politicians to trust 
ourselves and all we have to the enemies of Great Britain, men 
who will not let a Loyalist even act as county councillor. In 
thirteen counties no Protestant has been appointed outside Ulster 
since 1898, and out of 703 councillors in the three provinces — 
Leinster, Munster and Connaught — only 16. This is the 'ample' 
representation of the minority promised by Mr. Redmond.' " 

W. H. Webb, managing director of the "Old Bleach" Linen 
company, whose principal mill is at Randalstown, is another very 
likable man, personally, of the "hide-bound" Covenanter type. I 
had the pleasure of spending many hours with him. going over the 
Irish situation. I asked him for a statement of his position. On 
February 20, 1918, he sent me the following letter: — 

"Dear Mr. Wheeler: — I enclose you a few thoughts on the 
situation in Ireland. If they are any use, alright; if not, consign 
them to the basket. I wrote you very hurriedly yesterday, and 
would like to add that I got up the history of the origin of 'Old 
Bleach' for you to write from rather than to publish. I am 
extremely busy at the present time, which is not conducive to 
literary perfection. I think it is very important that American 
people should get the correct view on the Irish question, especial- 
ly at the present moment, when the matter is bound to come up 
again in Parliament in the near future, and the sympathetic 
understanding of the people in America has become almost an 
international question. I believe the Irish question is merely the 
instrument designed to bring down the British Empire, and it is 
of the utmost importance to the future of the world that the 
matter should be handled right. 

"Again thanking you and those with you for the fair-minded 
way you investigated the question, and with kindest regards. 
"Yours sincerely, 

"W. H. Webb." 

The inclosure was as follows : 



260 Appendix E 

"You are told in the United States that it is impossible for 
Ireland to progress and prosper under the Union with Great 
Britain; but what's the matter with Ulster? What's the matter 
with the linen industry? We in Ulster live and prosper under 
the same laws, the same form of government as the rest of Ire- 
land. 

"In Ulster we attend to our business, and are interested in 
the prosperity of our province ; we have not got time to spend 
in stumping your country, endeavoring to touch your sympathies, 
and your pockets with harrowing tales of 'Ireland in Chains,' 
'Ireland as she was 200 years ago,' not the Ireland of to-day, the 
spoiled child of the British Empire. 

"We are more interested in the future of our children than 
in the future of our ancestors. 

"The present stage of civilization has been a gradual develop- 
ment from barbarism and there are pages in the history of all 
countries which were better forgotten. But the future is more 
important than the past. 

"There are two stages of civilization in Ireland, one is far 
ahead of the other. 

"We hear to-day a great deal about small nations having the 
right to 'determine their own future.' We in Ulster intend to 
'determine our own future' — we are not going to be drawn back 
into the older stage of civilization — we are not going to trust 
our future to those who have been actively hostile to the cause 
of freedom and democracy in this World War. 

"The British government has offered self-government to the 
other three provinces in Ireland ; but they will not accept this, and 
insist that Ulster shall be coerced. Ulster will not be coerced, 
and there the matter stands. 

"We are told that the government of the United States, in 
order to improve their political position, is putting pressure on 
the British government to force Ulster to surrender. 

"We don't believe it for a moment ; your great President is 
pot that type of man. This suggestion is an insult to him and to 
your country. 

"We in Ulster are all of one mind on this matter — employer, 
and employee, farmer, farm labourer, and trader. 

"We have our differences on other matters, but on this we 
are as one man. 

"We have been whole-heartedly in the war from the beginning, 
and the reproach that Ireland has not borne her share of the 
burden hurts us deeply in this loyal province. We have done 
our best, we have made our sacrifices freely and willingly. We 
intend to stick it out to the end." 




.V'^^. 






4 Ov. 





